Spain’s recession will last for two years, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Reviewing its forecasts for the global economy, the IMF revised its predicted international growth down to 3.5 per cent, while Latin America’s forecast fell to 3.4 per cent. But amid the eurozone turmoil, Spain is as much a cause for concern after the country’s economy fell back by 1.5 per cent rather than the expected 1.8 per cent.

“In the past three months, the global recovery, which in any case was not very pronounced, has shown new signs of weakness,” said the IMF.

Spain is now expected to remain in recession until 2013, although even then Spain’s GDP will shrink by 0.6 per cent across the year.