June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish workers are finding that the cure for a decade-long borrowing binge may just make things worse. As Spain sinks deeper into recession and the jobless rate heads for 20 percent, the highest in Europe, employers are telling workers to accept wage cuts if they want to stay competitive. Thatâs making it harder for households to tackle a debt load built up during the countryâs economic boom and equivalent to 18,000 euros ($25,700) per person. âThereâs a Catch 22 problem for Spain,â said Dominic Bryant, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. âThe solution for the competitiveness problem makes their debt problem worse. By squeezing wages you weaken the domestic economy further.â Annual growth of almost 4 percent over a decade turned Spain into an engine of Europeâs economy, boosting pay and prices as a building boom encouraged households to rack up 800 billion euros in debt. More than a year into a housing slump that helped spark the worst recession in six decades, the challenge is to trim labor costs and pay back loans without hobbling the countryâs route to recovery. For Patricio Zuniga, a 40 year-old builder in Madrid, thatâs looking difficult after a 50 percent wage cut since the peak of the boom in 2007. âWe only just make it to the end of the month and weâve already run through our savings,â said Zuniga, whose mortgage burden is now 80 percent of his familyâs income. âThey say: âIf you like it you can take it and if not, well, thatâs it.ââ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awqfPnCyq70w That´s the price of being a EU member state. Welcome in reality !
yes. If they would have their own currency still they could crash it and competitiveness would return and good times would be back in Spain again as if they had never left! Just look how well that's working out in the US. Perhaps the ECB could sell Spain to the FED. Then GM could outsource to Spain. Sorry John Q but you are just asking to much money.