Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Euro-Zone Aims for Fund Increase

Wall Street Journal
January 18, 2011

Euro-zone governments are working towards an increase in the capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility to help members that have problems borrowing from the bond markets, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said Tuesday.

Mr. Reynders was speaking to reporters as he arrived for a meeting of finance ministers from the European Union's 27 members. A smaller group of finance ministers from the 17 nations that use the euro met Monday, but weren't able to agree an immediate boost to the EFSF's lending capacity.

A number of weaker euro-zone countries want to raise the total amount of emergency financing available to euro-zone countries from €750 billion ($996.3 billion) to around €1 trillion.

But Germany is opposed to the idea, preferring instead to ensure that the full €440 billion pledged by euro-zone governments is actually available for lending.

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