Pedro Solbes, Spain’s finance minister, said on Friday that there was no room for new fiscal stimulus plans in Spain or the rest of the eurozone, a cautious assessment that puts him in direct contradiction with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, his prime minister.

Mr Zapatero, who has headed Spain’s Socialist government since 2004, said on Thursday that Spain would launch a new round of stimulus spending – albeit a smaller programme focused on renewable energy and biotechnology – if previous public spending efforts failed to boost the economy by the summer.