Loja, Spain, Apr 29 (EFE).- Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday here signed an agreement to facilitate private investment in small and medium-sized firms in Spain to make a dent in the country's record jobless rate of 27.16 percent. De Guindos and Schaeuble discussed the agreement at a press conference prior to participating in a forum on the future of the European Union in the southern Spanish city of Loja.

Spain's unemployment rate surged past 27 percent to a new record in the first quarter of 2013, official data showed Thursday as a deep recession ravaged the eurozone's fourth-largest economy. A record unemployment number also emerged in neighbouring France, the eurozone's second-biggest economy, as the labour ministry said jobseekers in France surged by 36,900 in March to 3.224 million, beating a record set in 1997. Spain's new figure put its jobless rate just below that of bailed-out Greece -- the highest in the European Union at 27.2 percent.

By Paul Day and Sarah White MADRID (Reuters) - Unemployment in Spain jumped to a record 27.2 percent, data showed on Thursday, fuelling a European debate over whether to ditch austerity policies and switch to reviving economic growth. More than 6 million Spaniards were out of work in the first three months of this year, raising the rate in the euro zone's fourth biggest economy to a level unseen since records began in the 1970s.

It is "probable" that Spain will have to cut its state budget further this year, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Tuesday, as his government struggles to bring down its deficit. But the reduction should be less than that seen in 2012, when state finances were severely tightened, he told a Madrid news conference. "We won't make cuts like those we did last year, but it is probable that for some budget lines they will have to be made," Rajoy said.