The Spanish economy faces a very challenging situation and decisive challenges for its future. The intense expansionary phase recorded between the mid-1990s and the end of the last decade was abruptly interrupted by the successive effects of imbalances—price and cost differentials, loss of competitiveness, excessive private sector debt, substantial current account deficit, dependence on external financing, real estate bubble, etc.—the international financial crisis and, more recently, the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone.
