Spain's reform efforts are gaining traction with investors, making it unlikely that it will require a bailout like neighboring Portugal, a top International Monetary Fund official said Wednesday.

"The actions that have been taken in Spain recently have managed to decouple in the views of markets the fortunes of Spain relative to those of Portugal" and Ireland, said Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department.

"We're talking about completely different cases. Policy action has been taken in the case of Spain."