It took about one week from R&R's excel error until the first European country rebelled against "austerity" (which it never implemented in the first place, but that's a different story). Moments ago Spain officially said to hell with Germany's austerity, and announced it would delay achieving Europe's deficit target by two years, pushing it back by 2 years to 2016. Oh, and it slashed growth forecasts confirming what everyone else had known: it's economy is a total disaster, and the country can finally stop pretending there is any hope for "growth" in the near, mid or long-term future.
- SPAIN REVISES DOWN 2013 GROWTH FORECAST TO -1.3 PCT OF GDP VS -0.5 PCT PREVIOUSLY
- SEES DEFICITS OF 6.3% vs. 4.5% EU 2013 TARGET, 5.5% vs. 2.8% EU 2014, TARGET; 4.1% vs. 1.9% EU 2015 TARGET
- SPAIN TO DELAY DEFICIT REDUCTION 2 YEARS AS UNEMPLOYMENT RISES.
- SPAIN REVISES DOWN DEFICIT FORECAST TO 6.3 PCT OF GDP IN 2013
- SPAIN DELAYS REACHING EU BUDGET DEFICIT TARGET 2 YEARS TIL 2016
- SPAIN SEES UNEMPLOYMENT AT 27.1% IN 2013, 26.7% IN 2014
Luckily, this is not a surprise: the collapse in the Spanish economy is just as bad as had been expected, so this should be good for 10-20 points this morning in the Stalingrad & Poorski 500 stock index.
Full deficit breakdown:
h/t @JCCrespoOtero