Saturday 6 February 2010

The Eurozone Faces Its Most Difficult Test Yet

THE INDEPENDENT – Leading Article: Policymakers must address the central problem of credibility

The European single currency has entered the stormiest seas it has yet experienced. Sovereign debt anxiety is swelling among global investors. There have been mounting fears over the soundness of Greek debt for several months. And this week those fears spread to encompass the borrowings of Spain and Portugal. Some suggest that the euro ship itself could capsize if this weather gets much worse.

It is important to recognise that, while several European nations have weak public finances, Greece has exceptional problems. Athens' budget deficit is abnormally large, as is its stock of debt. And the European Commission discovered recently that the Greek government had been engaged in dishonest accounting to disguise the scale of its liabilities. >>> | Saturday, February 06, 2010