Wednesday, June 20, 2012
G20 backs Europe's plans for overhaul to fight crisis
Europe won support from world leaders on Tuesday for an ambitious but slow-moving overhaul of the euro zone, even as pressure built in financial markets for quicker solutions to its debt crisis that threatens the world economy.
European countries showed at a Group of 20 summit they were considering concrete steps to integrate their banking sectors, a major reform long sought by the United States and other nations to break the cycle of highly indebted countries trying to rescue banks, which only pushes governments ever deeper into debt.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said a stronger framework for a fiscal and banking union to underpin the common currency would help restore Europe's economic growth and lower borrowing costs for deeply indebted euro zone countries.
" What they're also trying to do is to make sure that, in the very near term, they put in place a set of measures that can help make sure that they're supporting the financial system of Europe, and they are helping make sure that the countries that are undertaking these reforms, like Spain and Italy, can borrow at sustainable interest rates," he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a critic of Europe's progress to date, said the European Union now is addressing all the key issues required to get to the root of its crisis, ahead of an EU summit next week.
"What will be important, what we'll be watching for next week and going forward will be the concerted, coordinated action that will actually make these things happen," he said.
Financial markets have yet to be convinced.
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