Government spending plays a critical role in protecting and enforcing rights and civil liberties. Empirical evidence for a sample of industrial and developing countries shows that government expenditures on defense, law and order, social security, education, and health care are associated with...

Spain has achieved impressive growth in recent years—reflecting favorable competitiveness, and the impact on interest rates and confidence of its successful road to monetary union. Despite several years of rapid growth, there are no unambiguous signs of overheating. Underlying inflation has...

Spain’s economy is facing severe challenges. Financial market tensions increased sharply in the wake of the Greek crisis. Policy should focus on rebalancing of the economy and securing market confidence. Ambitious fiscal consolidation is under way, but achievement of the targets needs to be...

This Selected Issues paper contains two studies examining key issues for fiscal management and long-term fiscal sustainability in Spain. The first study discusses how best to ensure fiscal discipline at lower levels of government by examining the institutional setting and mechanisms that make...

Spain’s 2007 Article IV Consultation underlies that immediate growth prospects are bright and the central scenario is for a smooth landing but with appreciable downside risks. The Spanish economy enjoyed another year of remarkable growth in 2006, further extending its prolonged expansion....

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that Spain experienced a second year of subdued growth in 2002—albeit at a rate still well above the euro area average. This was largely owing to the relative resilience of Spain’s domestic demand, which in turn was supported by a comparatively...

This report examines the Observance of Standards and Codes on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) for Spain. The findings reveal that the Spanish legal framework for combating money laundering and...

This report provides the background on the financial liberalization and deregulation process with special reference to Spain’s cajas de ahorros (savings banks). It provides an overview of the cajas’ governance structure and analyzes the regulation and supervision of cajas, with particular...

This report describes the assessment of the securities clearance and settlement system in Spain, based on the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS)-International Organization of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) Recommendations for Securities Settlement Systems. It is performed...