Spain has won praise from the International Monetary Fund for its “impressive” economic recovery, in a report that offered strong backing for the political measures taken by prime minister Mariano Rajoy at the height of the recent crisis. “The Spanish economy has continued its impressive recovery and strong job creation. Earlier reforms and confidence-enhancing measures have paid off, and combined with external tailwinds and fiscal loosening fuelled the strong economic rebound of the past two years,” the IMF said in its annual country assessment on Tuesday.

The Spanish government may to have to take over several bankrupt toll roads, the minister for public works said on Monday, adding that the state's chances of reaching a rescue deal involving the motorways' bank lenders was slim. The government has been trying for the past three years to negotiate some arrangement with creditors to help prop up nine struggling toll roads while also avoiding saddling the state deficit with several billions euros of debt. The deal would have involved steep losses for lenders - one plan envisage a 50 percent writedown on the debt - alongside an aid package.

A U.S. subsidiary of Spanish renewable energy firm Abengoa SA pressed a judge on Tuesday to approve its plan to exit bankruptcy over objections from a holdout creditor, who said the plan violated U.S. law by favoring the company's foreign parent, Reuters reported. After more than three hours of testimony and arguments, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey in Wilmington, Delaware, said he wanted additional written submissions from the parties. He did not say when he would rule. Abeinsa Holding Inc is one of dozens of global Abengoa subsidiaries that filed for U.S.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan by Abengoa SA's main U.S. subsidiary, Abeinsa Holding Inc, violates the law by shielding the Spanish renewable energy parent from lawsuits, according to the U.S. government's bankruptcy watchdog, Reuters reported. The objection by the U.S. Trustee, which typically oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases and polices them for conflicts, threatens to derail Abengoa's high-stakes debt restructuring plan to avoid its own bankruptcy in Spain.

A German MEP has accused Ireland of “tax dumping” after it was revealed that Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo has used an Irish company for many of his commercial contracts, instead of a company in higher-tax Spain, the Irish Times reported. The footballer appears to have used a Dublin image rights company, Multisports Image Management (MIM), to conclude many of his contracts, including deals with mobile phone companies and sportswear manufacturers.

Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA has asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to enjoin legal action and future claims by creditors who are unsatisfied with a high-stakes plan to restructure $10 billion of debt, Reuters reported. Abengoa, a Sevilla-based company with a global renewable energy footprint, put its U.S. subsidiaries in Chapter 11 protection this year and filed for Chapter 15 protection from creditors of non-U.S. businesses while it thrashed out a refinancing deal to avoid becoming Spain's largest-ever corporate failure.

Spanish energy firm Abengoa reported a nine-month net loss of 5.4 billion euros ($5.80 billion) on Monday, the week after a court signed off on its debt restructuring plan which should allow it to avoid bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The Seville-based company said the profit loss was due principally to huge provisions on deteriorating assets and the slowdown of its business over the past year as it has sold of assets and slashed its workforce to keep afloat. Abengoa's nine-month core profit - or earnings before interest, tax, debt and amortization (EBITDA) - was a loss of 90 million euros.

Spain’s unemployment rate has fallen below 20 per cent for the first time in six years, as the country’s economic recovery continues to power ahead despite 10 months of political deadlock and government drift, the Financial Times reported. According to the latest data from Spain’s quarterly labour market survey, the economy created close to 480,000 jobs over the past 12 months. The number of unemployed fell by 530,000 over the same period, or 11 per cent, to 4.32m.

Renewable energy firm Abengoa is on track for the 75 percent creditor approval needed for its restructuring plan and avoid filing for Spain's biggest ever bankruptcy, a source with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. The Seville-based company borrowed too heavily over the past 10 years to fund an expansion into clean energy and has been negotiating with lenders since November to cut debts of more than 9 billion euros ($10 billion).

Representatives of Nueva Pescanova, the successor firm to the troubled Spanish fishing giant, have sued the old company, Pescanova S.A., alleging breaches of securities law, a regulatory filing indicates. Nueva Pescanova specifically alleges that during the 2014 merger that formed it from the remnants of debt-embattled Pescanova, the former company reserved "alleged advantages" from Nueva Pescanova. The new company would like to be indemnified for those advantages, according to the filing.