Spain's economy 'will get worse'

Spain's grinding economic misery will get worse this year despite the country's request for a European financial lifeline of up to 100 billion euro to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said today. A day after the country conceded it needed outside help following months of denying it would seek assistance, Mr Rajoy said more Spaniards will lose their jobs in a country where one out of every four are already unemployed. "This year is going to be a bad one," Mr Rajoy said today in his first comments about the rescue since it was announced the previous evening by his economy minister. The conservative prime minister added that the economy, stuck in its second recession in three years, will still contract the previously predicted 1.7% even with the help. Small businesses and families starving for credit will get eventually relief as the funding props up banks and they increase lending, but Mr Rajoy did not offer guidance on when. Spain yesterday became the fourth, and largest, of the 17 countries that use Europe's common currency to request a bailout - a big blow to a nation that a few years ago took pride as the continent's economic superstar only to see it...