Spain’s Guindos: Future of Euro at Stake
Baku, June 1 (AZERTAC). Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the future of the euro is at stake in Italy and Spain, as data showed a net 66 billion euros ($82 billion) of capital left the country in March.
“The future of the euro is going to be at play in the next weeks in Spain and Italy,” he told a conference in Sitges, Spain, yesterday. “I don’t know if we’re on the edge of the precipice, but we’re in a very, very, very difficult situation.”
The euro region needs to integrate further in order to overcome the crisis and de Guindos said he expected “signals” in the coming days and weeks on integrating deposit-guarantee funds and banking supervision. “We all agree” on the need to move toward a “banking union,” he said.
Spanish borrowing costs compared with Germany’s rose to the highest in the euro’s history this week and the nation’s 10-year bond yields approached the 7 percent level that pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal into bailouts. As the International Monetary Fund denied it was preparing financial aid for Spain, data showed that a record 66.2 billion euros of net capital flows left the country in March.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the lender is “not doing any work in relation to any financial support” for Spain after meeting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria in Washington yesterday. De Guindos also denied a report yesterday by the Wall Street Journal that the lender’s European department started contingency plans for a rescue loan to Spain.
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