–Adds Schaeuble Comments To Story Sent Sunday At 05:30 EST
BERLIN (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled over the
weekend that she would rather accept a downgrade of the European
Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) than increase German guarantees for
the bailout fund.
The EFSF risks losing its AAA rating after France and Austria lost
their triple-A ratings. They were two of six triple-A rated countries
whose backing enabled the EFSF to maintain its top rating.
Merkel argued that the EFSF can support fiscally ailing Eurozone
member states even if it is downgraded.
“I was never of the opinion that the EFSF necessarily has to be
AAA,” the Chancellor said at a gathering of her center-right CDU in the
northern German town of Kiel. “AA+ is also not a bad rating,” she said.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also argued that there
is no need to increase Germany’s guarantees for the EFSF, which stand at
E211 billion.
“The guarantees are by far sufficient for what the EFSF will have
to accomplish in the next months,” he told German national radio
Deutschlandfunk (DLF) on Monday.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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