The Pain In Spain

27/04/12 -- It's been another bad week to be Spanish. Barcelona out of the Champions League, unemployment hits a record 5.64 million (nudging 25% of the entire workforce) and Standard and Poor’s downgrading them two notches and warning that it is already considering a further cut.

Now we hear that Spanish retail sales were down 3.7% in March - the 21st month in row sales have fallen. Unemployed people don't tend to shop that much do they?

On top of that figures due out on Monday are expected to confirm that the country has fallen back into recession. Welcome to the club.