Luis de Guindos, a former Lehman Brothers executive and economy under-secretary was appointed economy minister by Spanish President Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday to steer the country through its toughest economic crisis in decades. He will be aided by Cristobal Montoro, who was appointed finance minister.

De Guindos and Montoro will lead a costly overhaul of Spanish banks -- crippled by bad loans to property developers -- and persuade Spaniards to make sacrifices and accept austerity even though one in five workers is jobless.

New Spanish President Mariano Rajoy named on Wednesday a cabinet of mostly close advisers charged with reviving the sluggish economy. Spain is at the centre of the euro currency bloc's debt crisis on concerns its economy is too big to be bailed out with a Greek-style aid package.

Rajoy's centre-right People's Party (PP) won the parliamentary election by a landslide in November and he kept secret his choices for ministers right up until the last moment. However, de Guindos and Montoro had been on a long list of possible stewards for the economy after voters angry over unemployment threw out the Socialists who had been in office for more than seven years.

At one point during his campaign Rajoy had signalled he would lean toward independents rather than PP stalwarts, but that was not the way he went in the end.