International credit rating agency, Standard and Poor's (S&P) has announced its decision to revise the credit rating for Spain. The agency downgraded the country’s credit rating by two notches to BBB-plus on Thursday.

The agency said that it is downgrading the country’s agency due to expected deterioration of government finances and weakness of the Spanish banking sector. The agency downgrade comes as it expects a recession, which is already under way, to continue during 2013.

It said that the Spanish government, which is already finding it difficult to reduce its annual budget deficit and control the increase in public sector debt, might be forced to provide additional financial assistance to the banking sector of the country.

He unemployment figures in the country increased to almost one in four, according to the latest data released on Friday as the country faces another economic crisis. The number of people without jobs in the country rose by almost 367,000 in the first quarter to reach 5.64 million. This means that about 24.4 per cent of the workforce of the country is without work, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute.

José Manuel García-Margallo, foreign minister, has said that the country is facing a crisis of enormous proportions and also said that the unemployment is terrible for everyone including the government. The government has said that it is committed to meet its target for reducing the budget deficit and has also initiated the process of reforms in the country.

S&P lowered the country’s long and short-term rating to triple B plus/A2 from A/A-1, near the lower end of investment-grade quality.