When we were greeted by the latest batch of optimistic Spanish data this morning, such as the following:
- Spain June Manufacturing PMI 54.6 vs 52.9 in May; Est. 53
- Guindos Says Spain Growth Accelerating to Rates Close to 1.5%
- And this from the Economist: "With recession over and jobs being created, Spain's economic recovery is surprisingly strong [7]"
we thought, we would see some actual "end of recession" signals when it came to the underlying economy, like for example: jobs actually being created. Alas no. According to the just released European employment data for May, total Spain unemployment remained unchanged in May at 25.1%, while youth unemployment has actually risen to 54.0% - the highest since January!
[8]
That's ok though: aside from the facts, once is welcome to "believe" whatever headlines one wants to believe.
And speaking of "recovery", here is what unemployment across Europe looked like as of May.
[9]
Source: Eurostat [10] [10]