A horrendous year ahead. That is the scenario painted by the employers' organization CEOE for 2012, a year that will end with absolutely no growth within the Spanish economy and more than 5.2 million jobless workers, which brings the unemployment rate to 22.8%.
And that is the lesser of two evils, because the Forecast Report for the Spanish Economy in 2012-2013 published by CEOE's Department of the Economy and presented on Wednesday at the organization's Junta Directiva warns that these figures are justified so long as "measures and reforms are carried out to redirect the debt crisis." Because if reforms do not take place, then an alternative scenario could play out in which GDP recedes by 1.2% and unemployment shoots up to 5.5 without jobs.
The report begins by pointing out that "slow growth in the international economy is slowing down the pulse of our exports, which were playing a vital role in the economic recovery seen in 2010 and 2011," and indicators suggest that this deceleration will "continue throughout the next several trimesters."
