Spain upgrades 2014 economy outlook, jobs uncertain

Spain's government upgraded the economic growth outlook for 2014 today as the nation shook off five years of stop-start recession that have pushed the unemployment rate above 26 percent.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in Brussels he expected Spain's economy to expand by nearly 1.0 percent in 2014, up from an official growth forecast of 0.7 percent.
The prediction is the latest sign of a brighter horizon for the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, plunged by a 2008 property crash into a jobs-wrecking, double-dip recession.
The big question now, analysts said, is whether the economy will be strong enough to create jobs for the 5.9 million people unemployed in the last quarter of 2013, more than 26 percent of the workforce.

Spain's economy crawled out of recession with 0.1-percent growth in the third quarter of 2013.
Both the government and the Bank of Spain estimate that growth picked up to a better-than-expected 0.3 percent pace in the final quarter, leading to the upward revision for 2014.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government credits tough economic reforms and austerity policies for pulling Spain back from the precipice of a full-blown bailout, widely feared in mid-2012.
"Two years ago we were on the brink of collapse but thanks to the difficult measures we took internally, the situation is now totally different," De Guindos said.

"We are beginning to see the results," he boasted ahead of a meeting of European Union finance ministers, adding that the new outlook would be reflected in official forecasts to be released at the end of April.