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- Luis de Guindos, Economy Minister
Spain's public deficit for 2012 may exceed initial estimate of 8 per cent of the gross domestic product, said the economy minister on Monday, fuelling concerns the economy faces a prolonged period of contraction.
"We'll need to see, but it's possible that we have gone over the 8 percent mark, though [we] expect that it hasn't done so by much," Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said during an interview with Cadena Ser radio, his first since taking the post after the conservatives won the November election.
The austerity measures announced last week are the first of many. "The government has a very aggressive reformist agenda for the next few weeks and months, in the labor market, the financial system, in the goods and services markets and competitiveness," he said.
"With these measures, we're not very optimistic on the growth prospects for this year. We expect the economy to contract by more than 2 percent, but it all depends on financing costs," economist at Citi Jose Luis Martinez said.