LONDON (MNI) – A European Commission spokesman today “firmly”
denied a Spanish press report that Spain was in negotations with the
European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury
for a credit line of up to E250 billion.
Spain’s business journal El Economista reported in its Wednesday
online edition that officials from the EU, the IMF and the US Treasury
were in talks to provide Spain with a E250 billion liquidity lifeline.
The publication, citing sources close to the process, ran the
headline of the story along just above a tease to an inside editorial
urging Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign.
There have been several media stories in recent days claiming that
Spain had requested assistance under the recently-agreed E750 billion
EU/IMF rescue facility and that bailout talks were underway. All of
those reports have been strongly denied.
Spain is in the market’s crosshairs following the Greece debacle,
because it is running a deficit of 11.4% of GDP and it has major
problems in its banking industry tied to the collapse of the country’s
real estate bubble. Its economy is the fourth largest in the Eurozone,
after Germany, France and Italy.
–William.Wilkes@ntkn.com; +44 (0) 207 862 7485
[TOPICS: MGX$$$,M$$CR$,M$X$$$,M$S$$$]
