Focus shifts to Spain - IMF issues grave warning

As the mainstream media finally catch up with events in Greece, and incorrectly report that the Confidence vote tonight in Athens is crucial, (it is not, the crunch will most likely come a week from tonight), the IMF has shifted attention to Spain, (see also my astute posting beneath this on the Cajas).

AFP has one of many reports now arriving on the internet, with this significant quote:

Spain faced grave economic risks if it failed to crack down harder on spending, shake up the financial sector and loosen up the labour market, the International Monetary Fund said.

The Fund issued the warning two days after about 200,000 Spaniards took to the streets to protest austerity measures and unemployment, and as markets showed deep concern about euro zone sovereign debt strains as Greece flirted with a possible default.

"The repair of the economy is incomplete and the risks are considerable," the Washington-based IMF said in a report summarising a review of Spain's economy by its analysts.

"Downside risks dominate," it said.

A BBC reporter has finally turned up in Athens! Gavin Hewitt or some such name; maybe he should take a plane to Madrid and return to Athens next week. Incredible this demonstration of not just complete ignorance of developing events, but incompetence too. The report he filed on BBC News 24 this evening, with three disconnected personal accounts with no questions asked was modern British journalism at its worst! Rant over!