A TOLL road snakes west out of Madrid, offering a fast alternative to the jammed motorway alongside. Hailed a decade ago as a cure for congestion, the road’s operator is now likely to be nationalised, as are those running three other loss-making roads into the capital. This is expected to cost taxpayers some €2 billion ($ 2.7 billion), adding to a soaring national debt and on top of a €50 billion bill for rescuing Spain’s banks.Toll roads were designed as a response to Madrid’s breakneck expansion, but a burst housing bubble stopped that in 2008. Spaniards, struggling with falling household incomes and loans, have become more tight-fisted. Traffic on the four toll roads has almost halved. That alone demonstrates that, even as it recovers, Spain is still suffering from the aftershocks of a double-dip recession that shrank GDP by 6.4% in total.In Brussels these days Spain is hailed as a prodigal son of the euro zone’s troubled southern periphery. The economy returned to growth in the third quarter of 2013, with rising exports compensating for weak consumer and public spending. The Madrid stockmarket is booming, foreign investors are back, the current account is in surplus, bond yields have hit eight-year lows and new jobs are being created. It adds up to big progress in a country that once threatened to break apart the euro.What saved Spain? The pledge in July 2012 by Mario…
The Economist: Europe
