Bloomberg
May 16, 2011
European finance ministers endorsed a 78 billion-euro ($111 billion) bailout for Portugal as they stepped up pressure on Greece to do more to win improved aid terms.
Portugal followed Greece and Ireland in seeking emergency loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, bringing to 256 billion euros the aid provided to stamp out the sovereign debt crisis.
The backing for Portugal came during deliberations in Brussels today clouded by the absence of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Europe’s rich countries tied extra money for Greece to pledges that it reap more revenue at home and weighed whether to make bondholders share the pain.
“Greece also has a huge privatization potential and the Greeks should help themselves before calling for more money,” Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters before a euro crisis meeting in Brussels today.
The European finance chiefs were also set to approve the nomination of Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi to be the next president of the European Central Bank.
Greek bonds fell after the euro area’s economic powerhouses put up hurdles to an expanded aid package, with public discontent simmering in northern Europe over the costs of propping up high-deficit countries on the continent’s periphery.
Finance ministers said the IMF’s role as the contributor of a third of the bailout money for Greece, Ireland and Portugal won’t be hampered by Strauss-Kahn’s May 14 arrest on sexual- assault charges in New York.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment