Spain should make adjustments "as soon as possible"

Spain should implement adjustment measures "as soon as possible" to deal with the crisis, said Wednesday the central bank governor of Spain, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez.

"There are still major outstanding adjustments have to complete as soon as possible, to avoid involving a drag on the recovery," Fernandez Ordonez said in a speech he could obtain a copy of which AFP.

"I refer in particular to the need to complete the absorption of excess capacity in residential construction, further consolidating assets in the private sector and improve the competitive position of the Spanish economy," he said.

"And this has to do to while dealing with the problems that have arisen with the development of the economic crisis: the decline in employment and deterioration of public finances," continued the governor of the Bank of Spain.

Spain is in economic crisis, with an unemployment rate exceeding 20% of the workforce, and have since 2008 the effects of the bursting of the housing bubble.

International concerns accumulate some days before the country's poor financial health and its ability to reactivate the economy, despite having established a plan of austerity and structural reforms in the labor market, announced on Wednesday, and industry banking.

"It is essential that the fiscal consolidation program is accompanied by structural measures aimed at strengthening the growth potential of the economy, which depends very much on the sustainability of public finances," said Fernando Ordóñez.

"Signs of recovery are still very weak and are based largely on factors of a temporary nature that will tend to run out in the coming months," he noted.

"It is expected that the recovery is gradual and can take some time to reach a growth rate sufficient to generate employment," he added.

In its 2009 annual report presented on Wednesday, the Bank of Spain also claims a "fundamental reform of professional recruitment mechanisms."

The socialist government tried Wednesday to reform the labor market, considered essential to boost employment.

"The correction of the inefficiencies that have emerged in the labor market is of paramount importance, since its reform depends largely on the ability to increase competitiveness and generate employment," he said Fernandez Ordonez.