The United States raised pressure on eurozone leaders to take decisive action to solve the region's debt crisis, notably by lowering troubled members' borrowing costs.
US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, said the eurozone must take steps, including "bringing down interest rates in the countries that are reforming and making sure those banking systems can provide the credit those economies need". But German Vice-Chancellor Philipp Rösler rejected pressure for the ECB to step in and cap the borrowing costs of troubled eurozone countries, saying the central bank should stick to fighting inflation and not ease the market incentive to reform.
Geithner said Schäuble and Draghi had walked him through plans they were putting in place to try to solve the crisis, but he cautioned against expecting immediate action. "What you know, from what Europe has said, that they are committed to doing what's necessary to hold the Europe Union together", said Geithner. "I absolutely believe they have the means to do it."
Geithner said past financial crises showed that the longer it took to address the issues, the more they cost. "I believe they understand that. That's why they've signalled they are prepared to move further. Now again, this is going to take time", he added.
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