Crisis Haunting Spain as Loan Costs Threaten Growth
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Companies in Spain are having to pay three times more to borrow than their German peers, potentially stifling an economic recovery needed to provide jobs for the one in four people in the country looking for work.
Adjusted for expected inflation, Spanish banks charged 4.2 percent for loans of more than one year in May, just below a euro-era record of 4.39 percent in April, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates based on European Central Bank data. German lenders demanded 1.51 percent.