Portugal failing, what about Spain?

Portugal’s admission that it will probably need a financial bailout raises a question that will shape the outcome of the euro zone’s debt crisis: Is Spain next?

Spanish Cajas may attract international investors

The government will unveil Thursday how much capital the savings banks, known as  cajas,  must raise under strict new minimum-capitalization requirements introduced earlier this year. The government hopes that a cleanup of the  cajas  — many heavily exposed to the housing bust in Spain — will help repair its battered reputation among international investors.

Spanish economy in recovery?

Spain’s economy pursued a “slow recovery” in early 2011, the Bank of Spain said Friday, after joining crisis-torn Greece and Ireland as the only eurozone economies to shrink in 2010.

Spain is fending off fears in international financial markets that its public deficit is unsustainably high and could prompt the country to follow Greece and Ireland into seeking an EU-IMF bailout.