Action to save the Euro is required in “more shortly than three months,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview to CNN. The IMF chief response came after a reporter pressured the official to access billionaire investor George Soros’ remarks that Euro leaders had three months to save the Euro.
The United States and Spain discussed the possibility that direct loans from Europe's emergency fund could be a solution for ailing European banks, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Thursday.
Britain fell deeper into recession than initially thought in the first quarter of 2012 due to a slump in construction output, raising the likelihood that the Bank will opt to inject more stimuli to protect the economy from the Euro zone debt crisis.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it does not see a trend in South America toward state nationalization of private companies despite moves made by Bolivia and Argentina in recent weeks, a spokesman said on Thursday.
The IMF warned Latin America on Wednesday that favourable economic conditions are not for ever and called on the region’s countries to “rebuild defences” ahead of an uncertain economic future.
Europe was pressed by other world powers to take strong measures to fix its debt-heavy economy and restore growth to a level that would lift the cloud hanging over the fragile global recovery.
Argentina managed a first point in the diplomatic dispute with Spain over the nationalization of YPF when the IMF decided to call the conflict a “bilateral affair” and “a decision of a sovereign nation”.
The US government considers Argentine is obliged to submit its economic statistics to be validated by the IMF, and Washington will support all efforts from the multilateral organization so that the objective can be achieved.
Argentina's move to nationalize local oil company YPF, controlled by Spain's Repsol, was strongly criticized by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé.
The Brazilian economy is set to grow 3% in 2012 after the modest 2.7% of last year, but following the relaxation of monetary policy it runs the risk of ‘overheating’, according to the IMF World Economic Outlook, WEO.