European finance ministers gathering for a two-day meeting beginning in Cyprus are at odds over Spain, as Rajoy stalls on whether to request more aid from euro area rescue funds and win European Central Bank help to lower government borrowing costs. France is pressing Spain to seek more help to contain the euro area crisis three years after it emerged in Greece. “Spain will have to make its own decision”, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said in response to a question on a possible Spanish bailout request. “But all tools are available to it if it needs them.”
To qualify for ECB help, Spain would have to negotiate a credit line or full loan programme from the taxpayer-financed rescue fund, and the question of which option to take is set to dominate the meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus. A fight is brewing over the conditions imposed -- budget cuts and economic reforms -- with Rajoy saying Spain has already done enough to deserve the help.
“I don’t share the view of those who say Spain is so much a focus of speculation in the financial markets that we should advise the Spaniards to do anything different from what they’re doing”, Schäuble said. “I’m one of those who says we should do everything possible to convince the markets that this speculation against Spain is without any basis in reality.”
Full article
© Bloomberg
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article