The Spanish government upgraded its economic outlook on the 29th of April, tipping faster growth, a lower jobless rate and a slimmer public deficit.

As the Eurozone’s fourth-largest economy slowly recovers from five years of stop-start recession, Madrid raised its official growth targets to 1.2% this year from 0.7% previously and to 1.8% in 2015 from 1.2%.

At the same time the government said it expected the unemployment rate to fall to 24.9% in 2014 and 23.3% in 2015. However, Spain’s jobless rate, recorded at nearly 26% in the first quarter of this year, is not expected to fall below 20% until 2017.

The government has, however promised 600,000 new jobs in 2014 and 2015. Spain has seen 1.2m jobs disappear since the current Popular Party government came into power, Spain's El País newspaper reported.