English | دری

Spain denies ‘senseless’ IMF bailout rumours

in International Business

Spain denies ‘senseless’ IMF bailout rumours





There were rumours that Spain had already gone to the IMF, after the Spanish deputy prime minister went to meet the IMF’s managing director Christine Lagarde.

“My desire is to not come out and deny these rumours because they are senseless,” Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Spanish television.

Spain has taken Greece’s place as the epicentre of the eurozone crisis as concerns over the health of Spanish banks have shaken markets.

Bankia, Spain’s fourth largest bank, has asked for another 19bn euros (£15bn) recently from Madrid, but many question whether Spain will be able to afford it.

Eurozone ‘vacuum’

Speaking to the European Parliament, Mr Draghi said: “Can the ECB fill the vacuum of lack of action by national governments on fiscal growth? The answer is no. Can the ECB fill the vacuum of the lack of action by national governments on the structural problem. The answer is no.

“The next step… is to clarify what is the vision a certain number of years from now. The sooner this is specified, the better it is.”



“We need a genuine stability culture and a much upgraded common capacity to contain common contagion,” he told a conference.

New figures also showed eurozone inflation slowed more than expected this month.


The figure is still above the ECB’s target to keep inflation below 2%, but the lower-than-expected number could fuel calls for an interest rate cut next week.

Mixed data

In other figures released on Thursday, Germany’s unemployment rate fell below 7% as Europe’s biggest economy continued to perform strongly.


However, there was more bad news from Greece as figures showed that Greek retail sales volumes fell by 16.2% in March compared with a year earlier. This followed February’s decline of 12.9%.

Source: BBC news

Tags assigned to this article:
BankiaGreece crisisIMFSpain bailoutSpain banks

Related Articles

Analysts on the effects of sanctions imposed against Iran


Japan on a double whammy

Japan hits its highest trade deficit record for the first half of the year. Exports have weakened, rising only 1.5%

Bank of Japan announces fresh stimulus to boost growth

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has increased its stimulus programme for the second time in just over two months in

No comments

Write a comment

Write a Comment

Your e-mail address will not be published.
Required fields are marked*