Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Eurozone bond issue nears key demand test

Financial Times
January 17, 2011

Arguably the most important bond issue of the year should take place next week.

The debut offering from the European financial stability facility, the bail-out fund, will represent the first bond from the eurozone as an entity.

The success of the issue – designed to help fund the EFSF’s €18bn part in Ireland’s €85bn rescue – seems guaranteed after supportive noises from Japan publicly and other countries and investors privately.

But the EFSF debut is not just important for what it says about the sovereign debt crisis. Some investors see it as a Trojan Horse, an instrument by which the market’s favoured solution to the crisis – fiscal union – could be introduced by the back door.

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