When markets re-opened after the Christmas break, many investors began packing their bags for Spain. One head of southern European capital markets at a US investment bank said: “People have been travelling there since the first week after the holidays – it’s very positive.”

The situation is markedly different from that of even the same time last year, bankers say, as economic confidence in a nation once seen as a pariah of the eurozone crisis - alongside Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland - returns.