
A senior economist at the International Monetary Fund spearheading the bailouts of three Euro zone countries has lambasted its lack of leadership and said its first female chief is not fit for the job.

Spain's banks had 155.84bn Euros of loans on their books in May that are at risk of not being repaid, the highest since 1994.

Chile and Peru opted this week against following the lead set by nations from Brazil to South Korea in cutting interest rates as economic growth and slowing inflation in the Pacific neighbors gave central bankers little reason to change monetary policy

An IMF report revealed that the German economy’s performance has been remarkable despite facing considerable headwinds and that the US recovery “remains tepid and subject to elevated downside risks.”

The Euro area crisis has reached a “critical stage” and member nations must make a “strong commitment” to the shared currency to stop the plunge in investor confidence, the IMF said in a report that recommends issuing common debt as one solution.

Nations from around the world firmed up their commitments to provide emergency resources for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) designed to deter the spread of crises and increase the institution’s lending capacity to help countries in financial trouble.

The world’s largest emerging-market nations will announce contributions to the IMF’s financial firewall at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Mexico, Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced.

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.