Recession-marred Spain pushing for an ease in deficit targets

Faced with unpredicted recession, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy said he will "talk to the EU commission" about easing the country's deficit target for this year.

“We’ll talk to the commission, but in any case Spain will respect its public deficit targets,” Rajoy told reporters in Rome on Thursday (23 February) when asked about an ease of the deficit target.

He promised to draw up a "reasonable" budget for 2012 based on the "prudent" EU forecasts unveiled Thursday, which show that Sp...