Spain's factories slashed production for the 16th month in a row in December, official data showed Thursday, as they reacted to a slump in demand from recession-hit consumers.

Output dropped 6.9 percent in the year to December, after smoothing out seasonal blips, following a 7.0-percent plunge in November, a report by the National Statistics Institute showed.

Spanish police said Wednesday they have seized 4.1 tonnes of cocaine worth nearly a quarter of a billion euros in one of the biggest ever seizures of the drug in the country.

The cocaine was found at a warehouse in the eastern city of Elche hidden in containers of cow hides that were brought from Colombia by boat and were to be delivered to a shoe maker, police said in a statement.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday dismissed calls for his resignation over a case of alleged corruption in which he is implicated, saying he has the same determination to tackle Spain's economic crisis as when he took office.

Leading center-left newspaper El Pais on Thursday published account ledgers allegedly kept by two former treasurers of the ruling Popular Party that purportedly show that at least a dozen senior party officials, including Rajoy, received payments from a secret slush fund.

The International Monetary Fund said Monday that Spain's reforms under its financial-sector support program are close to being complete and that the cleanup of its weakest banks is well-advanced.

"The program remains on track: the clean-up of undercapitalized banks has reached an advanced stage, and key reforms of Spain's financial sector framework have been either adopted or designed," the IMF said.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Saturday denied allegations that he received undeclared payments from his ruling party, as he sought to douse a major corruption scandal.

Rajoy vowed not to resign despite the publication of documents purportedly showing secret payments to him and other top party officials, branding the damaging reports "harassment".

A judge summoned Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos as a witness in an investigation into alleged fraud involving bailout-out bank Bankia, a court said Friday.

The National Court, Spain's top criminal tribunal, summoned the minister to testify on February 18, according to a court ruling.

Spain's government leapt to calm a scandal Friday over alleged corruption in the ruling party, announcing that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will speak out after being named in the affair himself.

It insisted the publication of ledgers purportedly showing party donations being secretly channeled to Rajoy and other Popular Party officials did not threaten its stability as it fights through a recession.

Authorities Thursday asked Spanish King Juan Carlos's son-in-law, mired in a corruption scandal, to stop using the title Duke of Palma, claiming he has disrespected the town's name, an official said.

Inaki Urdangarin, who is married to the Duchess of Palma, the king's youngest daughter Cristina, is under investigation for embezzlement and tax fraud -- the first major public scandal to hit the king's family.

Spain's economy shrank at the fastest pace in more than three years in the final quarter of 2012, official data showed Wednesday, casting a shadow over the prospects of nearly six million unemployed.

Total economic output slumped 0.7 percent from the previous quarter, the steepest decline since the second quarter of 2009, after a 0.3-percent dip the previous quarter.

Spain's highest court on Tuesday suspended an unpopular one-euro surcharge for medical prescriptions introduced in Madrid this year to reduce the region's deficit.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court came in response to a suit filed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government against the measure and just two weeks after the court ordered the suspension of an identical surcharge introduced last year in the region of Catalonia.