Euro Crisis

I top-sliced Pace [PIC.L] today, on the basis I’m up 100% on it and now’s not the time to be greedy. Pace could hit £2, perhaps even get bought, but I’m lightening up as the market is, as a whole, super-risky right now. Lamprel [LAM.L] collapsed again yesterday. Its story is almost too bad to be true. […]

European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi’s pledge to “do whatever it takes” to save the euro saw markets close well up yesterday. Germany’s central bank views the implication the ECB might start buying Spanish or Italian government bonds, or launch a full-scale quantitative easing package, as “problematic” according to a Dow Jones report. The...

Greece has a 90 per cent chance of leaving the euro within 18 months, according to a statement released today by Citigroup. European Commission president Jose Manuel arrived in Athens today for crucial talks about how to proceed with the country’s bail out programme. Representatives from the European Central  Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were […]

A group of leading, global economists including two advisers to the German government have sounded a dire warning for debt-stricken Europe. “Europe is sleepwalking toward a disaster of incalculable proportions… The sense of a never-ending crisis, with one domino falling after another, must be reversed,” a new report issued by the  Institute for New Economic […]

Antonis Samaras, Greece’s new Prime Minister, this morning described the challenges the Greek government now faces as “Herculean”. In a speech to parliament, Samaras also said the Greek economy may shrink by more than seven per cent this year. It would not return to growth until at least 2014. The economically troubled nation’s central bank had previously forecast...

The value of the euro slumped to a new low today, as investors continued to worry about Spain’s troubled economy – despite news a bail-out plan for Spanish banks had been finalised. It is thought there is still a great chance Spain will need a complete sovereign bail-out. Many of its regions are becoming bankrupt […]

Spain’s much-needing banking system rescue, worth €100 bn, is expected to be ratified by EU finance ministers later today, The deal was yesterday backed by German lawmakers – although chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to rely on opposition votes yet again. Continuing problems in the Eurozone were blamed for higher than expected government borrowing figures in the UK.  Britain...

The future of Spain’s banking system is being debated by German politicians this afternoon. Last month, 26 members of Angela Merkel’s Bavarian Christian Social Union coalition voted against the proposed creation of the European Stability Mechanism, to bail out banks in struggling economies such as Spain. Reuters was earlier today predicting that Merkel would win […]

Italy’s economic minister has argued that greater action is required to resolve the Eurozone crisis. Addressing a parliamentary hearing in Rome Vittorio Grilli said that the European Union’s responses “are still not satisfactory”. Inadequate EU action and insufficient mechanisms have led to the continuing market instability, Mr Grilli argued. Whilst the European Stability Mechanism and […]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the worst of the euro crisis may be yet to come, as it cut its global growth forecast again this week. The organisation warned predicted growth rates could be slashed further if Europe’s policy makers do not act fast enough, and/or with enough force to stamp out the region’s on-going debt crisis. The […]