El Periódico de Catalunya, 2 December 2010
El Periódico de Catalunya leads with the “new economic market-mollifying measures” announced by Spanish PM Zapatero. This "third round of shock treatment in a year" entails privatising Barajas (Madrid) and El Prat (Barcelona) airports and 30% of the national lottery (which would bring in total receipts of €14 billion), as well as cutting corporate taxes and long-term unemployment benefits. However, El Periódico points out, these moves "won’t trim the deficit immediately, but in the medium term”. In its bid to reassure the markets, adds the Catalonian paper, the Spanish government is also counting on the European Central Bank, after its meeting on 2 December, to send out a “positive message to allay pessimism and speculation”.
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