Spain 'will ask for an extra year to meet EU's budget targets'
A source tells AFP that Spain will ask for the same concession that was given to Ireland – an extra year to meet deadlines.
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A source tells AFP that Spain will ask for the same concession that was given to Ireland – an extra year to meet deadlines.
…but Catalan voters could have to wait some time for full independence, with Madrid remaining opposed to the idea.
Elections are taking place in the Basque Country – the first since ETA renounced violence – and Mariano Rajoy’s home area of Galicia.
An independent audit of the banking sector says seven of Spain’s 14 banks will need financial support.
Prime minister Mariano Rajoy will hope that the hard-hitting Budget will soften the terms of any prospective bailout.
A Dutch newspaper quotes an insider as saying informal talks for a full-blown sovereign bailout are underway.
The extra funds are being provided while ministers work on sorting out the formal bailout from European funding.
Spain’s unemployment rate is the highest in the industrialised world.
The cost of borrowing for Spain keeps getting higher – fuelling rumours of needing a full-on bailout.
Reuters says a Spanish minister broached the idea on Tuesday. If they’re right, Ireland could be hit with a bill for €4.77 billion.
The Green Party points out that Labour’s sister party in Germany is opposed to letting banks borrow straight from the ESM.
Workers have taken to the streets decrying “robbery”, on the eve of a teleconference to secure Spain’s €100bn bailout.
The German chancellor says short-term measures to stop Spain and Italy from going under won’t cut it.
Spain issued some 3-month and 6-month bills this morning – but saw its rates rocket following its bailout request.
Spain sold off €3 billion in 12-month bills, but paid the price as investors continued to demand a high premium for their money.
The costs had fallen after Greece’s election, but are back up this morning as the fear of contagion remains…
Plus – the latest estimate of the average industrial wage, and how close Spain is being pushed to an international bailout…
If you were lending cash to the Spanish government for 10 years, you’d get an annual interest rate of 6.76 per cent.
The commissioner says he still wants to assist Ireland – and confirms Spain’s banking bailout won’t bring new fiscal conditions.
Germany ensured that Spain’s €100bn banking bailout would go through the government – meaning it counts towards national debt.
Both the European Commission and the German government say Spain has not made a formal application for EU funding.
It’s a tale of two Europes as countries go to the bond markets this morning…
The Spanish treasury minister says Spain “doesn’t have the market door open”, at a time it needs cash to help its banks.
France’s new foreign minister hits back at Barack Obama, saying: ‘Lehman Brothers was not a European bank.’
This all feels eerily familiar…
All the biggest news stories from the day, as well as the few bits and pieces you might not have seen.
All the biggest news stories from the day, as well as the few bits and pieces you might not have seen.
Investors declined the opportunity to buy short-term Italian bills this morning, seeing interest rates double from last month.
A meeting of Eurozone finance ministers sees Spain encouraged to frontload budget cuts in order to achieve EU deficit targets.
Last week marked the first time in six months that the European Central Bank didn’t intervene in the sovereign bond markets.
Spain sees the interest rate for 12-month bonds fall significantly, while Belgium has mixed results in an auction of its own.
There’s little respite for Greece, though, which is asked to pay a higher yield on an experimental auction of short-term bonds.
The pan-European ESCP business school says Ireland could get rid of €184bn in debts – by simply cancelling them out with others.
The price of borrowing for Spain is approaching the 7 per cent barrier, after both Spain and France struggled with bond auctions.
The markets seem nervous about Mario Monti’s attempts to form a government – while a Spanish bond auction also goes badly.
…and its input was virtually worthless, because prices today are pretty much exactly where they were seven days ago.
Jürgen Stark is stepping down three years early – apparently in protest at ECB policies not favoured by his native Germany.
Angela Merkel welcomes the Constitutional Court’s decision – but says it does not mean the emergence of a closer fiscal union.
Germany was not acting unconstitutionally in sanctioning a Greek bailout, the court says – though future bailouts need greater approval.
Christine Lagarde says there’s a “crisis of confidence”. No kidding: markets are slipping while borrowing costs are back on the up.