THE Prado museum, lined with works by Goya, Velázquez and El Greco, is a sanctuary of peace in busy central Madrid. When the museum advertised for eleven gallery attendants recently, it also seemed the perfect refuge from Spain’s job-starved economy: 18,700 people applied.As Spain timidly emerges from a blistering double-dip recession that has ripped 7% out of GDP over five years, job-seekers remain desperate. Unemployment is stuck at 26% and emigration is picking up. So will the recovery create jobs and send Spain into a virtuous cycle of increased domestic consumption, a higher tax take, healthy public finances and more jobs?Presenting next year’s budget on September 30th, Cristobal Montoro, the budget minister, did not offer rapid relief. Projected growth of 0.7% next year falls short of the government’s own estimates for job creation. And with a planned deficit of 5.8% of GDP adding to an already worrying debt pile, stimulus spending is impossible.Civil-service pay is being frozen for a fourth year in a row and pensions will not keep up with inflation, yet the public debt will still reach almost 100% of GDP. Spanish companies and households are busy trying to…
