Spain's economic crisis continues as unemployment figures hit 5 million

The fears of losing their homes because of failure to meet mortgage payments has become one of the main worries of Spaniards as 2012 draws to an end.

Such fears have entered the list of the top 10 worries for the Spanish population published by the Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS) Wednesday.

However, given that the CIS study is published just 24 hours after the unemployment figures for November showed almost 75,000 Spaniards lost their jobs during the month and that 4,907,817 Spaniards are now out of work, it is not surprising that unemployment is the greatest fear in the country. 80% of those asked considered unemployment to be the main problem facing the country with one in four Spaniards saying they believe they could lose their jobs over the coming year.

Spain’s key 10-year borrowing rate rose above 7.6 percent on Tuesday. That’s far above the 7 percent level that forced Ireland and Portugal to appeal for rescues from the IMF and European Union.

With shorter-term borrowing costs also surging, Spain is unlikely to be able to sustain paying such interest rates beyond the summer. “We’ve got enough liquidity to keep us going for three months,” the Barcelona daily La Vanguardia quoted an anonymous senior government member as saying on Sunday.

Madrid’s stock exchange saw its key IBEX35 index fall over 3 percent Tuesday to reach its lowest level since 2003.