MADRID, March 7 (UPI) -- Spain says it will slow down to save fuel and money, announcing a new 68 mph speed limit on its main roads,
Crews worked across the country covering the old 75 mph speed limit with stickers on 6,000 road signs in preparation for the Monday changeover, the BBC reported.
Authorities said the slowdown is intended to save energy in response to the surge in oil prices sparked by the unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world.
"We are going to go a bit slower and in exchange we will consume less petrol and pay less money," Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.
Spain is heavily dependent on imported fuel and normally obtains about 13 percent of its oil from Libya.
Rubalcaba said it is a temporary and "exceptional" measure called for by the situation in Libya.
However, the decision to reduce the motorway speed limit worries many economists, who warn of an unwelcome effect on a still delicate economy.
"I would give this the gold medal of an absurd policy measure," economist Javier Diaz-Gimenez said.
"It's hard to see how reducing speed limits will make a difference at all for the Spanish economy," he said. "If anything, freight and people will move at a slower speed; the Spanish economy will be less competitive."
Diaz-Gimenez said the Dutch government recently raised its speed limit and Britain is considering the same to "get the economy moving," leaving Spain alone in choosing to slow down.
