What with all the political manoeuvring this week, you would think there is a general election looming in Spain. In fact, the current Prime Minister called a general election as recently as March 2008 - while he was still in a position to win it.

The fact that Mr Zapatero (Socialist) did indeed win a second term in office had more to do with the lack of support for his opponent, Mr Rajoy (Conservative), than any overwhelming confidence in the Socialists.

With Spain still one of a few European countries still languishing in recession,

The latest monthly home sales figures are out for September from the National Institute of Statistics. Transactions are the heartbeat of markets, so it’s always worth a look at the monthly sales figure. What do the latest figures tell us about the state of the Spanish property market?

Mainly that there has been no major turnaround in the health of the market, but no lurch downwards either. Homes sale in September, not including social housing, stood at 33,276, up 7.4% on the previous month, but down

Spanish Economy Minister is satisfied the GDP is contracting at a slower pace and expects things to pick up in the next quarter.

Spain's economy contracted in the third quarter, although at a slower pace than in previous quarters, official data showed Thursday, contrasting with a return to growth elsewhere in Europe.

Gross domestic product declined 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, its fifth straight quarterly contraction, and was down 4.0 percent from a year earlier, the National Statistics Institute said in preliminary figures.

Banesto is the latest Spanish bank to offer properties for sale with discounts of up to 40%. But the offer only stands during November, in an effort to try and nudge potential buyers into making a move sooner rather than later.