Spain predicts unemployment rate to reach 19%

Spain's government expects that the Eurozone's fourth-largest economy will shrink by 9.2 percent this year and that unemployment will reach 19 percent of the working-age population. Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calviño announced the grim forecast on Friday when she explained Spain's economic stability plan that it has presented to the European Union.

This comes a day after Spain's government said that the nation's economy had shrunk by 5.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020, ending 25 consecutive quarters of positive economic activity dating back to 2013. Calviño said the government expects the economy to rebound strong, with a growth of 6.8 percent in 2021.

Hundreds of thousands of workers have been furloughed since Spain applied strict stay-at-home rules on March 14 when it declared a state of emergency that is still in effect. The government unveiled this week a complex series of guidelines it will follow to reactivate the economy and social life of the country over the coming weeks and months as long as there is not another jump in COVID-19 infections.

Spain has over 24,000 confirmed deaths from the new virus.