"The foundations are being set for the economic recovery, although it hasn't happened yet," he said in comments carried by the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.

His remarks came as Spanish labor unions staged a second general strike this year against his government's austerity measures, with picket lines going up at factories, train stations, and shopping centers in Madrid and other cities.

The fourth largest eurozone economy, Spain has been hit with 25 percent unemployment, plunging industrial output and a contracting economy as it struggles with the fallout from a bursting property bubble.

Its gross domestic product was down 1.3 percent at the end of the third quarter compared to the previous year.

But Rajoy insisted in the interview with Latin American newspapers that Spain was climbing out of the crisis.

"We believe that in the year 2014 Spain will already have economic growth and that the year 2013 will be better than the year 2012," he said.

"There are some positive things that are happening," he said. "The public debt is being reduced, the reforms, particularly labor reforms, are beginning to produce effects, and on top of that there are improvements in exports."

"I think there are data that advise us not to be optimistic, but we can say that things are going to go better next year and the effects of the decisions we are taking will be noticeable," he said.