西班牙失业率升至25% 官员称已接近危机边缘

Nearly one Spaniard in four is unemployed, according to data released yesterday, as the country’s economic and financial predicament prompted a government minister to talk of a “crisis of enormous proportions”.

昨日发布的数据显示，西班牙的失业率几乎达到25%。西班牙政府的一名大臣将该国的经济和金融困境称为一场“巨大的危机”。

The data from the National Statistics Institute showed 367,000 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year. That means more than 5.6m Spaniards – or 24.4 per cent of the workforce – are unemployed, close to a record high set in 1994.

西班牙国家统计局(National Statistics Institute)的数据显示，今年头三个月，有36.7万西班牙人丢掉了工作。这意味着，西班牙失业人口达到逾560万人（也就是24.4%的劳动人口），接近1994年创下的历史最高纪录。

The data, which came on the heels of another sovereign credit rating downgrade, prompted José Manuel García-Margallo, foreign minister, to say that they were “terrible for everyone and terrible for the government”. He compared the European Union to the doomed liner Titanic, saying that passengers would be saved only if all worked together to find a solution.

这些数据发布前不久，西班牙主权信用评级再次遭到调降。西班牙外交大臣若泽•曼努埃尔•加西亚-马加略(José Manuel García-Margallo)表示：“对每个人以及西班牙政府来说，（这些数据）简直糟透了。”他把欧盟(EU)比作在劫难逃的邮轮泰坦尼克号(Titanic)，认为乘客们只有齐心协力找到解决方案才能得救。

“Spain is undergoing a crisis of enormous proportions,” Mr García-Margallo told state radio, insisting that reforms by the centre-right government of Mariano Rajoy, prime minister, would eventually restore the economy to health.

加西亚-马加略告诉西班牙国家电台：“西班牙正在经历一场巨大的危机。”他坚持认为，首相马里亚诺•拉霍伊(Mariano Rajoy)的中右翼政府实施的改革最终会使西班牙经济恢复健康。

Half of young people under 25 have no work and in more than 1.7m households no one has a job. That contrasts starkly with fellow eurozone country Germany, where unemployment is at its lowest point since east and west reunited in 1990.

西班牙25岁以下年轻人中有一半没有工作，170多万个家庭全家失业。这和同为欧元区成员国的德国形成鲜明对比，德国的失业率正处于1990年东西德统一以来的最低点。

The unemployment figures come amid a Europe-wide debate about whether government austerity imposed to cut budget deficits is threatening growth prospects. However, Luis de Guindos, economy minister, made it clear Madrid was not abandoning austerity and announced plans to raise value added tax next year, something the government had promised repeatedly not to do.

发布上述失业数据之际，整个欧洲都在争论为削减预算赤字而实施的政府紧缩计划是否正对经济增长前景构成威胁。不过，西班牙经济大臣路易斯•德金多斯(Luis de Guindos)明确表示，马德里方面没有放弃紧缩，而且宣布了明年提高增值税的计划——西班牙政府曾一再承诺不会提高增值税。

Standard and Poor’s, the credit rating agency, earlier delivered another blow to Spanish confidence by cutting the country’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, predicting that a recession already under way this year would continue into 2013.

信用评级机构标准普尔(S and P)早些时候把西班牙的主权信用评级调降了两级，再次打击了人们对西班牙的信心。标普预测，西班牙今年已经开始的经济衰退将持续到2013年。

The downgrade shook eurozone financial markets yesterday morning, helping to push up Italian borrowing costs in an auction of government bonds, and slightly increasing Spanish yields in the secondary market.

此次降级在昨日早间对欧元区金融市场造成冲击，抬高了意大利拍卖的一批国债的借贷成本，二级市场中西班牙国债的收益率也略有上升。

“The worry is that this is unlikely to be an isolated downgrade,” said Matt King, a senior strategist at Citigroup. “Investors are discovering that Italian and Spanish government bonds are not as safe as they thought.”

花旗集团(Citigroup)高级策略师马特•金(Matt King)表示：“人们担忧的是，这很可能不是一次孤立的降级。投资者正发现，意大利和西班牙国债并不如想象中的那般安全。”

S and P’s downgrade was worrying for Spanish leaders and foreign investors because it mentioned the need to provide extra financial support for weaker banks, a problem already highlighted earlier this week by the International Monetary Fund.

此次降级之所以令西班牙领导人和外国投资者忧心忡忡，是因为标普提到西班牙必须向较为疲软的银行提供额外的资金援助，而国际货币基金组织(IMF)在本周早些时候就已经强调了这一问题。

Analysts say a “bad bank” to take over property loans from the balance sheets of Spanish banks would probably have to be financed either by the Spanish state or by the EU itself.

分析人士指出，从西班牙银行资产负债表中接收房地产贷款的“坏银行”，很可能必须要由西班牙政府或者欧盟自己来提供融资。