New deficit target for Spain

SPAIN has been ordered to make an ‘additional effort’ and cut its deficit for 2012.

Finance ministers of the 17-country eurozone have insisted the country must meet a target of 5.3 per cent of GDP this year, despite Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy setting an earlier target of 5.8 per cent.

The 0.5 per cent difference will mean an additional adjustment in spending of five billion euros this year.

But Rajoy has insisted it is ‘reasonable and achievable.’

The new agreed target stands well above the original target of 4.4 per cent, which has triggered demands from other European countries for the same degree of fiscal leniency.