Three of the heavily indebted ‘PIGS’ countries – Greece, Ireland and Portugal – have already received or requested bailouts from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, leaving only Spain holding on to solvency without external support.

The sequence of funding failures has triggered fears that Spain could suffer the same fate. Such an eventuality would pose a far greater threat for the Eurozone given that Spain’s economy is almost twice the size of those of Greece, Ireland and