In the years of economic crisis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Spanish leaders have always been able to boast to nervous investors that Spain’s public debt burden – however bad its annual budget deficits – is smaller than Germany’s and well below the European Union average.

Economists, business executives and even government officials, however, have recently started to sound the alarm about the rapid and unsustainable growth of the country’s public debt.

The original boast remains officially true today, despite scepticism about “peripheral” European economies after the Greek bailouts. The latest statistics from September 2011 show total Spanish public sector debt standing at €706bn, as measured by the EU’s deficit-control rules – a manageable 66 per cent of the country’s €1.07trn gross domestic product.