CORDOBA, Spain, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday faulted the International Monetary Fund for not taking action to unfreeze credit markets and ease what is seen as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

'After all that has happened in recent months I have not heard any initiative from the IMF, it being the body that it is, and having a role to play,' he said when asked about the body's forecast that the Spanish economy will shrink next year.

'I respect its forecasts but when it comes to forecasts the government always works to improve on them in terms of growth and jobs,' he added at a joint news conference in Cordoba with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Earlier Wednesday the Washington-based IMF predicted in its latest World Economic Outlook that Spain's economy, the fifth largest in the European Union, would decline by 0.2 percent in 2009 after expanding by just 1.4 percent this year.

It also forecast that Spain's unemployment rate would climb to 11.2 this year and hit 14.7 percent in 2009.

'The forecast counts on some suppositions which are a bit negative when compared to what we have in mind,' Spanish Economy Minister Pedro Solbes told reporters in Madrid when asked about the IMF predictions.

Spain's socialist government predicts the economy will expand by 1.6 percent this year and 1.0 percent in 2009.

It forecasts the unemployment rate will rise to 10.4 percent this year, and to 12.5 percent in 2009, after hitting 8.3 percent last year.

Spain's economy expanded by 3.7 percent last year but has begun to slow down as the key property sector is hammered by high interest rates, oversupply and the global credit crunch.