Tackling Spain's dramatic unemployment rate is a priority for the country, said Spain's Secretary of State for the Economy at an investor presentation in London on Wednesday.

This is a very dramatic statistic, something that unfortunately for Spain is not exceptional.. and going forward it needs to be dealt with, said Jose Manuel Campa on January's unemployment data.

The number of registered jobless rose by 3.2 percent from December to 4.2 million, the Labour Ministry said earlier on Wednesday. Data last week showed the overall jobless rate at 20.2 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest in the European Union.

(Reporting by William James)

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