Spain's 2013 national budget expects the economy to slow by only 0.5%, a figure that goes against the general view among analysts, who estimate that GDP will fall more than 1%.
Unemployment has stabilized around 24.3%, which is three points less than in 2012, yet is not so good that Spain will avoid another year of recession during which private and public spending will fall twice as much as last year and gross capital levels will fall 2.1%.
Still, the macroeconomic picture for the year ahead is rather somber. Take Spain's 169.775-billion euro national debt and 38.590 billion euros in interest payments on that debt, for example. Right now it is the best gauge for measuring how serious our problems are. Cristóbal Montoro said last August that the country's national debt represented 76% of GDP. It's very likely that this figure will be 80% by the end of the year and near 90% by 2013.
