MADRID (AFP) – Spain's jobless rate topped 20 percent in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, fuelling fears over the country's public finances which have rattled global financial markets. The number of unemployed jumped by 280,200 to 4.61 million, more than in Germany which has nearly twice Spain's population, for a jobless rate of 20.05 percent, said national statistics institute INE. The unemployment rate rose from 18.83 percent in the fourth quarter. The last time it topped 20 percent in Spain was in the fourth quarter of 1997 when it hit 20.11 percent. Spain's jobless rate has soared since the global credit crisis hastened the collapse of its labor-intensive construction industry at the end of 2008. The country's unemployment rate is double the record high of 10 percent posted in the entire 16-nation eurozone in March, according to figures released Friday by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat. The rise in unemployment means Spain's socialist government, which has vowed to protect social welfare spending, will face an even bigger bill for jobless benefits as it tries to rein in a public deficit that hit 11.2 percent of output last year. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut the country's long-term sovereign credit rating on Wednesday to ""AA"" from ""AA+"" amid concerns about the country's growth prospects, sending the euro and global stock markets tumbling on fears Madrid faces similar problems to debt-stricken Greece. The Spanish economy, Europe's fifth largest, contracted 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, even as the entire eurozone, the United States and Japan emerged from recession.