Spain to raise 2012 deficit target: report

(MADRID) - Spain will revise upwards its deficit target to 5.0 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 in plans to be presented to the European Union in the coming days, El Pais newspaper reported Wednesday.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Economy Minister Luis de Guindos will present the new target, above the current official 4.4 percent estimate, in Brussels within 10 days, the daily reported, citing unnamed government sources.

The government has said Spain will likely log a deficit of 8.0 percent for 2011, far overshooting its 6.0 percent target for that year. In 2010 the figure soared to 9.3 percent.

Since Rajoy's government took power in December it has announced billions of euros in planned savings through budget cuts, tax hikes and an anti-tax fraud drive.

The deficit figure measures how far public spending exceeds revenues, a key indicator of financial stability.

The government says its savings and reforms will strengthen the economy, which was stricken by the bursting of a real estate bubble in 2008 and is expected to enter a new recession in this quarter after recovering from one in 2010.

Spain's unemployment rate is nearly 23 percent, the highest in the industrialised world.

El Pais said that meeting the 4.4 percent target would oblige Rajoy to find a way to save a further 25 billion euros, a tough task at a time when spending cuts and labour reforms are prompting mass street protests.

The newspaper said a target of around 5.0 percent this year could allow the government to aim for a lower level of further cuts, around 15 billion euros.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is due to publish its new economic growth forecasts for Spain and the other countries in the bloc on Thursday.