A Spanish court accepted Spanish fishing company Pescanova's insolvency petition on Thursday and said it would name independent administrators to replace the board of directors, Reuters reported. "We declare Pescanova in insolvency," the Pontevedra mercantile court in northwestern Galicia said in a ruling published on Thursday. Galicia-based Pescanova, which catches, processes and packages fish, filed for insolvency this month on 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) of debt and has yet to present audited 2012 accounts, missing a March 1 deadline.

Defying the conservative central government in Madrid, Andalusia this month implemented measures that will temporarily stop evictions and penalize banks and real-estate firms for holding hundreds of thousands of vacant properties, The Wall Street Journal reported. It favors people hurt by Spain's recession over of the interests of the country's lenders, including many that have received government bailouts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Whether the action will stand up in court is still in question.

Spain will on Friday reveal plans for a fresh overhaul of its pension system, labour market, service sector and fiscal management, as Madrid prepares to soften its austerity programme in favour of a new focus on structural reforms, the Financial Times reported. The government of Mariano Rajoy hopes the package of measures will bolster investor confidence in the Spanish economy, which is scarred by a two-year recession and soaring unemployment.

Spanish fishing firm Pescanova sank deeper into scandal on Tuesday as shareholder anger mounted over accounting failings and the chairman's undeclared sale of shares in the period leading up to insolvency proceedings, Reuters reported. Pescanova, a household name in Spain and one of the world's largest fishing groups, filed for insolvency on April 15 on at least 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) of debt run up to fuel expansion before economic crisis hit its earnings.

Pescanova's chairman sold half of his stake in the Spanish fishing company before deep debt problems became public in March and trading in its shares was suspended, the company said on Monday, Reuters reported. Pescanova initiated bankruptcy proceedings in early March after a deep and long recession in Spain left it unable to pay debts of at least 1.5 billion euros ($1.96 billion) racked up during an ambitious expansion. But bickering between board members, questions over its accounts and a row with its auditors have slowed efforts to hammer out a survival plan.

A record number of Spanish companies went bust in the first quarter of 2013 as companies remained under intense pressure from tight credit conditions and meagre demand, a study showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The 2,564 firms filing for insolvency proceedings in first three months of the year was a 10 percent rise from the previous quarter and a 45 percent increase on the same period in 2012, the survey by credit rating agency Axesor said.

Spain's Pescanova, one of the world's largest fishing companies, is filing for insolvency after a month of boardroom battles ended in stalemate and put the future of the debt-laden group at risk. Negotiations with creditors are deadlocked and the group is at odds with its auditors amid an atmosphere of mistrust and management infighting, sources told Reuters. "It's a boat that's drifting, but it hasn't sunk," a banking source told Reuters.

Complaints about the dearth of lending by banks can be heard in small and midsized businesses up and down the country, and are raising concern not just within the Spanish government but also the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, the Financial Times reported. Spain’s economic crisis and the near-collapse of its banking sector last year have conspired to choke off the flow of bank loans – threatening to dry out the vast and versatile pool that dominates Spain’s private sector.

The finance chief of Spain's Catalonia region said that unless the European Union relaxes its austerity drive, the recession in Southern Europe may spread north, The Wall Street Journal reported. "It would be a pity if a more prudent macroeconomic policy would happen only after recession has arrived in the center of Europe. It would be better to anticipate," Andreu Mas-Colell, head of economics of Catalonia's regional government, said in an interview here last week. "EU policy makers should not underestimate the depressive effects of austerity in the south," he added.

The Spanish economy will shrink by 1.5 per cent this year and unemployment is set to rise above 27 per cent, the Bank of Spain has predicted, the Financial Times reported. The central bank’s latest annual forecast leaves little doubt that 2013 will be an even tougher year for Spaniards than last year, with housing prices also heading for yet another sharp fall. The economy will again be marked by weak domestic demand, a fragile labour market and tight financial conditions, the bank said.