January 18, 2011
European finance ministers debated Monday how to beef up their giant rescue fund for troubled euro-zone countries but ended the first day of a two-day meeting without reaching a firm resolution on how to do it, amid German reluctance to open the doors to more and bigger bailouts.
Germany's disinclination to speed ahead dovetails with what European diplomats describe as a momentary air of calm that has descended on the bloc's sovereign debt crisis. "Although the markets remain volatile, the latest developments are encouraging," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister and head of the group of euro-zone nations.
That's because the depressed government bonds of troubled Portugal and Spain have had some relief over the past week, thanks in part to the European Central Bank's program of buying euro-zone debt on the secondary market. The ECB said Monday it had purchased €2.3 billion ($3.1 billion) worth from the middle of the first week in January to the middle of last week—a relatively high amount.
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