The negative feeling was voiced in two newspaper interviews over the weekend. Clemens Fuest, an Oxford University economist and an advisor to German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, told Greek newspaper To Vima on Sunday 8 January that private bondholders will have to write off more than the 50 percent of Greek debt agreed at an EU summit last October.
He warned that even this may not be enough to stop a default, however. Miroslav Singer, the head of the Czech central bank, told the Hospodarske Noviny newspaper in remarks published on Monday that unless the EU pours in more money, Greece will have to leave the euro. They are set to be joined by private doctors on Tuesday, while state hospital doctors at outpatient clinics are also planning strikes. Unions are planning meetings on Tuesday to examine a possible extension of the strikes.
Rutte will also participate at a meeting of European liberals, together with EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn. Van Rompuy warned that the EU needed to do all it could to prevent falling into recession. Most economists have predicted that the eurozone will experience at least a short recession in the coming months. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product GDP. BERLIN — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Monday that a bailout fund set up for debt-wracked eurozone countries was struggling to attract foreign investors, who were demanding higher guarantees.
However, increasing the guarantees offered to investors would reduce the firepower of the fund, already considered far too small to intervene if the debt crisis were to claim a larger victim such as Italy. European governments had hoped the fund would enjoy broad support in cash-rich countries such as China but enthusiasm has thus far been muted.
By contrast, imports declined 0. Taking the 11 months to November as a whole, German exports rose That meant the month trade surplus increased by 2. The government is keen to be seen as proactive on the need for a referendum. Irish Eurosceptic Becomes Euro-Federalist. The Czech central bank chief said Greece may have to quit the euro. Prime Minister Viktor Orban meanwhile is refusing to do the one thing that could relieve some pressure — alter a new central bank law that is holding up financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and European Union.
