As Portugal teeters on the brink of a bailout, economists have turned their sights to Spain, which has the less than honourable distinction of being part of Europe’s club of weaker economies, known as PIIGS or Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

Since the collapse of its highly leveraged property market in 2007, Spain has wrestled with a catalogue of fiscal woes, from unemployment levels of around 20% to a banking sector in crisis.