The number of Spanish companies and families filing for bankruptcy hit a record in the first quarter by exceeding 1,500, almost four times the number registered during the same period in 2008 and 44 percent higher than the previous quarter, the National Statistics Institute said on Wednesday.

As in earlier quarters, the construction and real estate sales sector once again led the number of insolvencies, with 475 between the two of them, or 35 percent of the total.

Six of every 10 of the firms filing for bankruptcy were small and medium companies, with an annual sales volume below 2 million euros and fewer than 50 employees.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s administration has launched a 33 billion euro economic stimulus package to blunt the impact of the global recession.

Spain’s gross domestic product contracted by 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009 relative to the same period last year.