Eurozone Finance Chiefs Fall Short on Bailout Fund

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　Finance chiefs from the 17 nations that use the euro agreed Monday to raise $195 billion from eurozone central banks to help the International Monetary¹ Fund boost its European assistance. In a conference call, however, the finance ministers were unable to secure the rest of the money from European Union countries with separate currencies.

　　Leading the opposition², Britain said it would not contribute to any IMF fund that was only available to the eurozone nations. Britain was the lone³ dissenter⁴ in a continent-wide agreement earlier this month to impose tighter budget controls on individual governments.

　　Four other European countries outside the eurozone - Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden - agreed to contribute.

　　IMF money may be needed

　　The IMF money could be needed to help rescue Italy and Spain, the eurozone's third and fourth largest economies, respectively, if either defaults on its debts.

　　Despite the latest setback⁵, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Europe will not abandon the euro.

　　"I have no doubt whatsoever⁶ about the strength of the euro, about its permanence, about its irreversibility. Let's not forget, this was a key word at the time of the Maastricht treaty. The one currency is irreversible," said Draghi.

　　The eurozone finance leaders also worked on details of the fiscal⁷ compact to control deficit⁹ spending they agreed to earlier this month, a pact⁸ supported by nine other European Union nations that have separate currencies, but not Britain.

　　Detailing deficit spending

　　The UN Conference on Trade and Development, in a new report, underscored Europe's economic plight¹⁰. It said the continent faces a full-fledged recession next year and prospects¹¹ for the world economy are bleak¹². The UN agency said world leaders need to stimulate¹³ economic growth, but instead are choosing austerity measures that raise the chance of a global recession.

　　Financial markets initially¹⁴ welcomed the European debt crisis agreement. But since then they have grown skeptical¹⁵ that IMF funding will be large enough to handle a new bailout crisis that could be much larger than those already faced by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

　　In Madrid, Spain's next prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, vowed¹⁶ to trim the government's deficit by more than $21 billion in 2012. Rajoy, slated¹⁷ to assume office this week, detailed¹⁸ a variety of austerity measures in a speech to Parliament.

　　Rajoy warned that hard times lay ahead for Spain, though, with its unemployment rate at a staggering 23 percent. He said the "panorama¹⁹ could not be more somber²⁰."

分享到：