Spain’s Zapatero Says Economic Recovery “Imminent”

MADRID – “The growth train is very close,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Thursday, announcing measures to improve economic competitiveness and labor markets in a country where some 4 million people are unemployed.

“If we do what we should and rigorously apply all the reforms in progress, this train will increase its velocity until it acquires that necessary to restore job creation,” the Socialist premier said in Madrid before leaving for Brussels to attend a European Union summit.

He pledged to push changes aimed at ensuring the long-term stability of Spain’s pensions system, as well as labor market reforms that “strengthen companies without weakening the workers.”