Fátima Báñez stresses Spain is OECD country with steepest reduction in unemployment rate in last 12 months

The Spanish minister said that these figures are the result of efforts by and reflect the merit of Spanish society as a whole, which, in combination with the reforms undertaken by the Government of Spain, "has turned our country around from being the one with the highest rate of job losses to becoming the one with the fastest rate of unemployment reduction".

The data published on Monday by the OECD show that the unemployment rate has fallen by 2.57 points in Spain, compared with 0.53% in the OECD as a whole and faster than any other Member State.

Furthermore, in absolute terms, unemployment in Spain has fallen by 603,000 people over the last 12 months, accounting for 17.8% of the unemployment reduction throughout the OECD. Only the United States has posted a larger reduction to unemployment in absolute terms (down 864,000).

Non official translations