Elena Salgado, the normally sprightly Spanish finance minister, could not disguise her discomfort when she announced an austerity plan designed to slash successive budget deficits and restore the country’s credibility on international markets.
She had good reason to be uneasy. The table of figures she presented on Friday showing Spain’s “fiscal consolidation path” through €50bn ($70bn, £44bn) of savings over four years had some embarrassingly blank spaces for the projected budget deficits in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
