EU on the Brink of Economic Collapse !
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting of top officials dealing with the euro zone debt crisis for Monday morning, reflecting concern that the crisis could spread to Italy, the region’s third largest economy. (Source Reuters).
Economy of the European Union & EU Zone
- Germany – 2.400.000
- France – 1.900.000
- United Kingdom – 1.570.000
- Italy – 1.520.000
- Spain – 1.050.000
- Netherlands – 570.000
- Turkey – 440.000
- Switzerland – 355.000
- Belgium – 337.000
- Poland – 310.000
- Sweden – 293.000
- Austria – 277.000
- Norway – 275.000
- Greece – 237.000
- Denmark – 223.000
- Finland – 171.000
- Portugal – 167.000
- Ireland – 163.000
- Czech Republic – 137.000
- Romania – 115.000
- Hungaria – 93.000
- Slovakia – 63.000
- Luxembourg – 38.000
- Slovenia – 35.000
- Bulgaria – 33.000
- Lithuania – 27.000
- Latvia – 19.000
- Cyprus – 17.000
- Estonia – 14.000
- Iceland – 9.000
- Macedonia – 7.000
- Montenegro – 6.500
- Malta – 6000
When you check out the economics in Europe, you can see that the problems in Iceland, Ireland, Portugal and Greece are peanuts ! When Italy or Spain will need financial help the real shit will start. The Italian economy is over 3 times larger than the economy of Iceland – Ireland – Portugal and Greece together !!!
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend the meeting along with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the region’s finance ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Olli Rehn, the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, three official sources told Reuters. Van Rompuy’s spokesman Dirk De Backer said: “It’s a coordination, not a crisis meeting.” He added that Italy would not be on the agenda and declined to say what would be discussed.
However, two official sources told Reuters that the situation in Italy would be discussed. The talks were organized after a sharp sell-off in Italian assets on Friday, which has increased fears that Italy, with the highest sovereign debt ratio relative to its economy in the euro zone after Greece, could be next to suffer in the crisis. A second international bailout of Greece will also be discussed, the sources said. The spread of the Italian 10-year government bond yield over benchmark German Bunds hit euro lifetime highs around 2.45 percentage points on Friday, raising the Italian yield to 5.28 percent, close to the 5.5-5.7 percent area which some bankers think could start putting heavy pressure on Italy’s finances.
Shares in Italy’s biggest bank, Unicredit Spa, fell 7.9 percent on Friday, partly because of worries about the results of stress tests of the health of European banks that will be released on July 15. The leading Italian stock index sank 3.5 percent. The market pressure is due partly to Italy’s high sovereign debt and sluggish economy, but also to concern that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may be trying to undermine and even push out Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who has promoted deep spending cuts to control the budget deficit.
We can’t go on for many more days like Friday, a senior ECB official said. “We’re very worried about Italy”.
Monday’s emergency meeting will precede a previously scheduled gathering of the euro zone’s 17 finance ministers to discuss how to secure a contribution of private sector investors to the second bailout of Greece, as well as the results of the stress tests of 91 European banks. Greece is already receiving 110 billion euros ($157 billion) of international loans under a rescue scheme launched in May last year but this has failed to change market expectations that it will eventually default on its debt. Senior euro zone officials worry that progress toward a second Greek bailout, which would also total around 110 billion euros and aim to fund the country into late 2014, is not being made quickly enough and that the delay is poisoning investors’ confidence in weak economies around the region. (Read full article @ Reuters).
Italy needs $600 billion !
The farce is now complete, as the Chinese rating agency Dagong, which was the first one to downgrade the US, reminds the world it is there to lend its weight in destabilizing the ponzi house of cards. From Dow Jones: “Chinese ratings agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. said Monday it is putting Italy’s sovereign debt on negative watch for a possible downgrade. The Italian government’s debt accounts for 119% of gross domestic product, with most of the debt coming due in the next five years, Dagong said in a statement. Dagong has often issued controversial ratings. In November last year, it cut its rating on the U.S. to A+ from AA, with a negative outlook. It ranks the U.S. as a riskier borrower than China. Italian debt is in focus at the moment, as spreads between 10-year Italian and German bond yields reached a record 2.47 percentage points on Friday. (Read full article @ Zerohedge).
EU on the Brink of Economic Collapse
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