Understanding Spain

I've been doing an amount of research on Spain over the past few weeks to try and understand the current economic situation and the impact the global recession has had on the country. It's been mildly grim reading in terms of unemployment with Spain currently having a 18.5% unemployment rate. What is more disturbing is that this figure is set to rise to 20% in 2010. That equates to a 5th of the able bodied population out of work. It's also currently the highest in the Eurozone.

Then I started looking into commercial property. There seems to be a lot of vacant property around at the moment, renting volumes have decreased and there are estates which are virtually empty. Barcelona and Madrid are being shunned for better rates and Malaga, Valencia and Bilbao all seem like better viable options.

Spain has still some pain to bear. The banks although stable have had to consume toxic debt, much like many other countries but their overall conservative outlook has provided some relief.

So as I'm running through all of this I am thinking that maybe Spain is the place to solidify the network. With the market in a small free fall the time could be right to capitalise provided business levels are there.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on, at the moment its a very interesting and valuable exercise which will allow me to fully understand Spain and all its workings.