The ratings on the Kingdom of Spain reflect its robust fiscal consolidation in recent years, which has been supported by tight expenditure control, coupled with declining interest payments, and strong revenues. The general government has been broadly in balance or recorded small surpluses and is expected to continue to do so over the medium term. Moreover, the debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to continue on a downward trend, culminating in a decline of about 20 percentage points, between 2000 and 2008, to about 40% of GDP. Reforms to labor and product markets have increased the resilience of the Spanish economy in the past few years, with real GDP growth outperforming that of the Eurozone by more than 1% on average during
