euro zone

Progress on such a scheme is always likely to stall because euro-zone countries are reluctant to cede any control of their public finances.

Life is still far from easy in the peripheral states of the United States of Europe (as the euro zone is now known).

EVEN by the euro zone's undemanding standards, a summit deal that survived less than a week is lamentable.

Except in a default, they avoid any fiscal transfer of the kind that would be anathema to the euro zone.

A euro zone central bank source told Reuters last week that the ECB would like to see its resources at least doubled.

While all this may send euro zone officials up the wall, economists and market participants are fairly dismissive about it.

He said he also will attend the country-review sessions on China, as he already does with those on the U. S. and the euro zone.

Real and nominal stochastic convergence : are the new EU members ready to join the Euro zone ? ; Ali M. Kutan and Taner M.

So Ireland has long been flirting with a debt crisis of its own. But it has not been helped by the other euro-zone members.

He said he was very concerned about a renewed intensification of the euro zone's debt crisis.

If it fails to do so, Greece may be forced to bid farewell to its membership of the euro zone, whether it wants to or not.

A year ago it was said that the euro zone could take care of two or three small countries but that Spain was too big to fail.

In another, that's the worry for the stock market, because much like the Euro Zone, the global economy is all interconnected too.

It is not all to do with America: the euro zone is a mess and manufacturing everywhere seems to be slowing.

If any euro-zone countries were to break free of the shackles of the common currency, the European experiment would be threatened.

The sexual assault charges throw the IMF into turmoil just as it is trying to ease an escalating euro zone debt crisis.

Individual countries within the euro zone might be in peril, but not the common currency itself, he said.

It is not clear that voters will thank him for his trouble, though they may appreciate his energetic efforts to solve the euro-zone crisis.

The assumption is still that the euro zone will somehow muddle through, at least for a while.

In the last decade, its economy has expanded by an average of 3. 7% a year, nearly twice the rate for the whole euro zone.

It would be wrong to conclude that, in trying to get ahead of the crisis, the euro zone's policymakers have already gone too far.

By removing the weakest members of the euro-zone from the public markets one at a time, they expose the next-weakest to increased pressure.

Italy is among the biggest borrowers in the world, and its debt accounts for nearly a quarter of the total debt of the overall euro zone.

By contrast, euro-zone governments were able to pile on debts for a decade way beyond what would have been tolerated of Latin America.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Greeks would get no more euro-zone rescue aid until the question is answered.

Jitters about whether the emergency loan package would be enough to stem the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis also hammered Spanish stocks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Stark stood for a "culture of stability" in the euro zone to which her government strongly adhered.

The British minister George Osborne said the discussions in Paris had brought the euro zone reforms a step closer.

With a few exceptions, the benchmark cost of credit in each euro-zone country is related to the balance of its international debts.

His reward was that the euro zone will have two summits a year and its own secretariat.

Asian investors are looking at it (the euro zone crisis) and saying that they want to be out of euro assets, and even Bunds.

He said the "cacophony of voices" from different euro zone states had confused markets with mixed messages.

The crisis has toppled seven euro-zone governments in less than a year, including those in Spain, Italy and Portugal.

But a senior euro zone source said the idea was unlikely to go away and more talks could be expected next year.

Consumer confidence in the euro zone tumbled to its lowest level in two years, the Brussels-based European Commission said Thursday.

Merkel said the solution to the current crisis was in closer economic cooperation in Europe and especially in the euro zone.

Having said he wanted a referendum on the latest euro-zone rescue package, he rapidly lost the support of his cabinet and his party.

Klaus Regling, chief of the new euro-zone bailout agency, said he could deliver 'substantial' funds 'within days. '

How much official Chinese money has found its way into peripheral euro-zone countries is a matter of guesswork.

Yet in today's miserable euro zone such a tone of confidence could turn out to be chillingly complacent.

That said, I reserve the right to resubmit my examination paper if Europe's leaders are foolish enough to let the euro zone sink.

The euro zone's crisis has tested the efficacy of these European rules and led Germans to ask why they should pay when others break them.

Logically, therefore, if those three options are not possible, the only path left is to leave the euro zone.

Although there was no fixed theme for this year's meeting, the strength of the euro zone was an important issue.

Over the medium-term, Englander believes the euro zone will be able to resolve its issues, but he says the next month may be a "bit rough. "

Even where troubled euro-zone countries had not been profligate, they have been running unsustainable current-account deficits.

I recall that in the early years of the euro zone there was a general notion in the markets that the Greeks were behaving like the Germans.

Investors are also watching to see if the Fed discusses the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone and its impact on the U. S. economy.

Without it, dysfunctional bond markets would not be able to transmit the central bank's interest-rate stance to the euro zone's economy.

Some analysts have predicted the crises in the Euro Zone, however, could force the union to break up in the coming decade.

One useful means of allaying the panic might be for euro-zone countries to issue part of their debts joint bonds.

At the start of this year a surging recovery, led by Germany, was one reason to think that the euro zone could withstand the debt crisis.

Fund managers now seem to be reluctant to hold any euro-zone government debt.

Markets continued to gyrate amid fears of a euro-zone meltdown and rumours of a political solution.

Rossi says the fate of Greece and its place in the euro zone is in Greek hands, but its grip is weak.

The next day, a Friday, euro-zone leaders were due in Brussels for a quick meeting to approve the Greek package.

The euro zone risks getting caught up in this process with an overvalued exchange rate at the wrong time.

News of a euro-zone fragmentation, if it comes, will come suddenly, like a declaration of war.

In short, the euro zone would be reckless to flirt with collapse when an affordable rescue is possible.

Even if the euro-zone crisis were to be solved tomorrow, the region's GDP would probably shrink over the coming months.

Even so, it is wrong to conclude that, in trying to get ahead of the crisis, the euro zone's policymakers have gone too far.

Investors do not seem convinced that euro-zone governments will be able to muster the political will to hammer out an agreement.

Now he would urge the league's boss, Umberto Bossi, to abide by proposals to have a uniform retirement age of 67 across the euro zone.

They stress the lack of experience in high office of the would-be Socialist candidates, at a time when the euro-zone crisis is deepening.

The European Central Bank sets interest across the 16-member euro zone but has no direct power over members states' fiscal policies.

Yet that raises a further question: have leaders now done enough to put the euro zone on a sound footing?

Private banking sources said the new bonds could be guaranteed by the euro zone's rescue fund (EFSF) or the European Investment Bank.

I don't believe the euro zone can survive in its current form, and I think Europe is in for a deep recession, not a short shallow one.

But there is no strategy on the bigger question of how and how far euro-zone countries should go towards joint liability for some debts.

"Portugal or Spain do not present concern in terms of the banking sector, " one euro zone source said.

Yet if the euro zone needs more fiscal federalism to survive, politics seems to preclude a Maastricht-style leap towards integration.

The alternative is to let the euro-zone break apart and trade suffer across the Continent.

Without money from private markets, Greece will have to ask fellow euro-zone countries for help.

International investors began to target Ireland as a weak link in the euro zone, raising its borrowing costs to unsustainable levels.

The euro zone must ensure that delinquent borrowers do not exploit these facilities to run up bills for everyone else to pay.

That investors have belatedly woken up to sovereign risk in the euro zone is to be welcomed.

If Greece defaults on its debts, she said, then the effects would quickly spread to other euro zone countries.

The U. S. and the euro zone already have had to confront unsustainable trends in fiscal entitlements programs.

IF YOU think euro-zone governments are a mess, then Pacific states make them look like models of stability.

Although the size of the writedown is welcome, euro-zone leaders are desperate for it to be "voluntary" .

This shifting of risk from bondholders was a bad idea in Ireland and generalizing it across the euro zone will not improve it.

The country most likely to leave the euro zone is not Greece, Spain or Portugal -- but Germany.

In such an economically integrated area as the euro zone, leaving the currency union would not solve Greece's economic problems either.

Despite the troubles on its periphery, the public debt of the euro zone as a whole is not notably high by rich-country standards.

Ironically, the euro zone's difficulties in recent months have made it easier for the United States to go into debt.

Traders fear that the austerity measures being put in place in many euro zone countries will hit growth.

Above all, no amount of recapitalization would be enough to protect banks from a cascade of euro-zone defaults.

Hopes that the fracture of the euro zone might be averted by far-sighted policymakers could give way to a belief that it is inevitable.

ALLOWING a euro-zone country to leave the club is the unsayable (if not unthinkable) policy option for euro-zone politicians.

Meanwhile, the risk of a disorderly break-down in the euro zone remains.

"Debt stress in the euro zone is not going to disappear overnight, " she said.

The next phase of these negotiations could take place as euro-zone finance ministers meet late Tuesday in Brussels.

It's not just a French problem: What's happening in France won't stay in France, given the shared burden among euro-zone countries.

The euro-zone summit will be vital in trying to stop the market panic.

In contrast, huge refinancing needs helped drive Greece into the arms of the fund and of its euro-zone peers in May.

The second was to convince the markets that Greece is an isolated case that bears no resemblance to the rest of the euro-zone.

Prior to the big show we have retail sales out of the EU, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as UK PMI and GDP out of the Euro Zone.

"There's a chance we've seen the best of the euro zone data, " said Jane Foley, currency analyst at Rabobank.

An Irish problem has quickly become a euro-zone problem-and a British headache, too, given the close links between the neighbours.

It is influencing the borrowing costs of euro-zone governments directly, without much of a guide to what the rates on their bonds should be.

The alternative to a bigger EFSF would be the issuance of Eurobonds that are jointly and severally underwritten by euro-zone members.

Greece kicked off the crisis in the euro zone because of investor concern it would be unable to pay its debts.

There is of, course, no guarantee that this will work for the euro zone's peripheral debtors.

Doing so could provide up to 700 billion in lending for Italy or Spain and for bank recapitalizations across the euro zone.

Over the course of 2008, stalling export growth will probably turn into a mild drag on the overall expansion of the euro zone economy.

Kiel , Germany as the world economy is predicted that the German euro-zone's largest economy will be sluggish until the end of next year.

AS YOU read this, lawyers are busily drafting a European fiscal "compact" designed to restore discipline to the euro zone's economies.

The euro zone debt crisis has spurred Western investment demand in gold in the second quarter above the levels seen a year ago, Grubb said.

Euro-zone leaders are likely to hold a special summit Friday to discuss ways to help Greece, a European Union diplomat said.

The trouble is, time seems to move so much faster outside the euro zone than within.

The assumption that euro-zone government bonds were almost interchangeable and none could default steadily began to crumble.

Turmoil in the rump of the euro zone would batter export markets just as the north's firms became less competitive.

When investors were last so nervous about the credit of the euro-zone's periphery, in March, countries were still able to tap bond markets.

Britain would, surely, have had more influence had the countries of the euro zone remained under an EU-wide system.

"There's very little chance that Greece will stay inside the euro zone, " she said. "I think Greece could leave as early as next spring. "

The 16 euro-zone countries have agreed to guarantee up to 440 billion in loans if any among them is unable to borrow from private markets.

The euro zone has a reasonable amount of spare capacity, which could allow it to grow above trend for a few years.

The money would be available to rescue euro-zone economies that get into financial troubles, the diplomats said.

The British now hope that tightening euro-zone integration provides a chance for Mr Cameron to negotiate looser ties.

And Greece is not the only member of the euro-zone with wobbly public finances.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that the world economy could be pushed to the brink by the euro zone's debt crisis.

Pushed by France, the euro zone will formalise summits of its 17 leaders, to be held twice a year after EU meetings at 27.

At least some of those buyers will be businesses from elsewhere in the euro zone.

The euro zone's fills and deepening gloom over the world economy will make it hard to close such a wide gap.

Moves in the direction of a euro-zone economic government look like a climb-down.

If there were a real possibility of euro-zone disintegration, money would pour into assets with national identity (German bonds again).

The size of the package means that financing issues for euro zone peripheral countries will not be a major concern.

The German chancellor and French president jointly demanded golden rules across the euro zone in August.

The same may be true in the euro zone too, but the ECB is not yet ready to make that leap of faith.

A run on Greek banks is possible. So is a "sudden stop" of capital to other weaker euro-zone countries.

But markets don't view the euro zone as a single entity, because its 16 national governments have chosen not to be a single creditor .

Woody Allen's description of his failing relationship with Annie Hall is as apt when applied to the euro zone.

The largest of these was a leveraged punt on the bonds of peripheral euro-zone governments, notably Spain and Italy, exceeding $6 billion.

SOME would say that tragedy was inevitable from the moment, nine years ago last month, when Greece was admitted to the euro zone.

If a messy default is forced upon a euro-zone country, it might be tempted to reinvent its own currency.

If the euro zone were to break up it would put huge pressure on the single market.

It has some of the industrial strength (if not the export dependence) of the euro zone's "core" .

The financial crisis may have increased the allure of the euro zone, but it has also made it trickier to get in.

Confidence in the euro zone project has been shattered over recent months and picking up the pieces will not be an easy process.

It is the only organisation likely to force a rethink of the euro zone's failed strategy towards Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The German cabinet backed July's controversial agreement in the euro zone to expand the scope of the European Financial Stability Facility.

And if Greece did not fully repay the loans from other euro zone countries, it would suffer a major loss of political credibility.

Within the euro zone, there is no currency risk involved and interest rates are set at the same level across the region.

The Greek government, the only aid receiving euro zone country, that has not collapsed, is weak and vulnerable.

That expanded role is due to be ratified by euro-zone parliaments in the next few weeks.

Behind the move was a growing belief in Berlin that euro-zone nations could no longer afford to live however they pleased.

Despite all the fuss, less favoured euro-zone borrowers have been far from shunned by the bond market.

But as the world saw with Ireland in December, whether a euro-zone member thinks it needs help is beside the point.

Olli Rehn, the EU's top economic official, said it was a "responsible step for securing the financial stability of the euro zone" .

Much of the medium-term acceleration will come from the advanced economies, including the U. S. , the euro zone and Japan.

It is hard to see the euro-zone crisis from the top of the Eiffel Tower these days: There are too many foreign tourists blocking the view.

with separate summits that would be chaired, like euro-zone summits, by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council.

Once among the richest people in Europe, the Irish have been laid low by a banking collapse and the euro zone's debt crisis. What now?

What's more, the components of a solution to the immediate euro-zone crisis, long proposed by this newspaper, are fairly well understood.

Such linkages, along with Britain's strong trade ties, mean the economy's fate depends on an orderly resolution of the euro-zone crisis.

France says Greece must quickly decide if it wants to remain in the euro zone. The warning follows similar comments from Germany.

French home prices fell faster than the euro-zone average during the crisis but have rebounded sharply enough to cause some consternation.

Industrial orders in the euro zone fell by 6. 4% in September, the steepest decline since the dark days of December 2008.

But a majority of Europe's businesspeople definitely wants politicians to do more to hold the euro zone together.

The euro-zone's largest members will need to stick with the commission's programme if it is to carry any weight.

Most rich countries, including many in the euro zone, have seen their bond yields fall since the start of the year (see chart).

And those projections might be overly optimistic: retail sales in the euro zone have declined for five consecutive months.

Italy has long had a big public debt, but a reasonably stable one; its budget deficit is among the euro zone's smallest.

Iceland's recuperation seems to offer two big lessons for Ireland and other troubled euro-zone countries.

Euro-zone crisis: The risk of a breakup is reduced, but economic deterioration in Europe still threatens to depress world growth.

Those short positions have been initiated by speculators who think the euro zone's debt worries are unlikely to go away in a hurry.

Gold miners' stocks advanced as bullion rose to its highest in about three weeks on concerns about a spreading debt crisis in the euro zone.

"The solution has to be a euro devaluation through the ECB purchasing peripheral euro zone government bonds, " said Tullett's Komileva.

She recognises the deep hostility of her voters to big fiscal transfers to weaker, more profligate euro-zone countries.

Throughout the euro crisis Mr Sarkozy has appeared alongside Ms Merkel at Franco-German summits to set policy for the entire euro zone.

Italy is faring better economically than some neighbors and its budget deficit is among the lowest in the euro zone.

"Strong euro zone growth is still mainly a German export phenomenon, " Carsten Brzeski at ING wrote in a research note.

When you have more euro-zone economies in trouble than out of it, there's no way to put together a fiscal package to fix the mess.

Fears about the U. S. economy faltering and the euro zone's debt crisis spinning out of control spooked investors.

Sarkozy called for a "new economic government" that would be formed of the 17 euro zone government leaders.

But many observers say common debt issuance may be the only way Germany can keep the euro zone from breaking apart.

Two factors in particular are rattling markets at the moment when it comes to the euro zone crisis.

Among the issues on the table are the euro-zone debt crisis, currency policy, financial regulation and improved economic coordination.

Inflation in the euro zone may be the new concern, with data due on Monday and a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday.

Structural changes are the last great hope in part because euro zone members have few other levers for lifting their economies.

He was expecting German foot-dragging. She stunned him with a proposal: a euro-zone rescue fund of 500 billion euros.

'I think it's the euro zone's first real test, and I think it will get through it, ' he said.

Worrying, too, are signs that companies across Europe are preparing for the possibility of a break-up of the euro zone.

But a number of euro zone countries have yet to ratify it, including Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

The result underscored concerns that more financially weakened euro-zone governments may soon be priced out of the capital markets.

The Irish bailout is intended as a signal that the euro zone will come to the aid of its own.

The clear implication is that investors do not believe the currency bloc's debt crisis is over, multi-billion euro zone bailouts or not.

However, Germany hasn't yet signaled it is ready to accept euro-zone bonds in the near term in return for such budget controls.

With the Japanese and euro zone economies floundering, the dollar becomes just about the only short-term alternative, analysts said.

Moves in the direction of a euro-zone economic government look like a climbdown.

it has hurdled over Spain, supposedly next in line, and reached one of the euro zone's giants.

Spain remains in the front line of the euro zone's debt crisis.

Earlier Thursday, the ECB dashed investor hopes it would signal strong action to shore up the euro zone's ailing bond markets.

That is bound to bring more fiscal-policy control from Brussels, turning the euro zone into a more politically integrated club.

Euro zone finance ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels on Monday as they search for the right message to soothe skittish investors.

After long insisting on going it alone, Portugal announced that it would seek a bail-out from its euro-zone partners.

Indeed, if the European Central Bank were similarly audacious, the euro-zone might be better off today.

Weak demand in the euro zone , the UK's biggest trading partner , only makes such a fall even more necessary .

Within the euro zone France could specialise as an exporter of services, while Germany dominates industrial exports.

Moreover within the euro zone, crisis response is crippled by the ECB's constitutional ban on bailing out its own banks.

Germany has never categorically ruled out the joint issuance of bonds by the euro's 17 national governments, known as euro-zone bonds.

But as the crisis persists, austerity drags on and the euro zone integrates to save itself, the legitimacy of the enterprise will suffer.

On the face of it, the prospect of regular euro-zone summits is a setback also for Germany.

Much of the recent good economic news in the euro zone, the U. K. and Japan has stemmed from strong export data.

This would be particularly good news for the euro zone's peripheral economies, already traumatized by fiscal contraction.

Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, called for new rules for the euro zone, allowing errant members to be excluded if necessary.

Meanwhile a fresh ratings downgrade of Ireland has shown worries over the euro zone's fiscal health are far from over.

The euro zone is the world's largest unified economy after the U. S. , and a major source of world demand for goods and services.

They said they'd propose more political integration with the creation of a common economic government for the euro zone.

Soros's move is likely to be regarded by markets as confidence in the euro zone's ability to sort out its debt problems, the paper wrote.

Their alternative is slow growth that would turn whole countries into the national equivalents of West Virginia within the euro zone.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain and Germany agree on the need for decisive action to stabilise the euro zone.

Back in May and June there was a lot of talk about the bleak outlook for the euro zone.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament Greece must decide quickly, whether it wants to remain in the euro zone or not.

Perceptions about the U. S. and the euro zone outlook are likely to guide trading until the Jackson Hole conference.

Despite these "national identities" , all coins can be spent throughout the euro zone regardless of their origin.

It has worked well in the UK but would be the wrong instrument of fiscal policy management in the euro zone.

And markets want assurance that politicians will provide interim financing to beleaguered euro zone economies. "It may be the I. M. "

This was, after all, the third "comprehensive solution" devised by the euro zone so far this year.

This has resulted in greater price transparency, as well as a reduction in transaction costs and foreign exchange risks in the euro zone.

Geithner Bloomberg Television interview when asked whether Ireland will be the last euro-zone countries receiving assistance.

As Eurocrats in Brussels are keen to stress, far from breaking up, the euro zone is growing.

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, one of Berlin's closest allies, acknowledged that the euro zone could splinter.

Something will emerge when euro zone leaders meet on Thursday, but will it be comprehensive enough to calm the markets?

This may come in the form of the ISM reports that point to an economic contraction in the euro zone.

"We are not Greece" has been a constant refrain from euro-zone countries to nervous bond investors.

The euro zone's northern creditor governments have refused to put more of their own money into the pot.

THERE has been a fair degree of Schadenfreude in Britain about the euro zone crisis.

This is an issue which must be dealt with economically as the ECB's monetary policy is drafted with the overall needs of the euro zone.

The IMF is expected to release a report on Monday saying the euro zone does not need new stimulus measures, a euro zone source said.

The ECB's commitment to tightening, however, will to a certain extend depend on the robustness of the euro zone economy.

If this seemingly inexorable process is to be arrested and reversed, both Greece and the euro zone must urgently adopt a plan B.

In the early hours of May 10th finance ministers, meeting in Brussels, agreed on an extensive scheme of repairs for the euro zone.

And too many countries, including the euro zone's biggest members, were allowed to flout the rules with impunity.

Even given the most competent and far-sighted political leadership, the current euro-zone institutions would not work.

Greek access to euro zone capital markets would be impaired for years, stalling the public and private sectors.

Both also urge fiscal integration within the euro zone, as well as the introduction of Eurobonds.

European leaders will face an ever starker choice between a break-up of the euro zone and a closer fiscal union.

Unfortunately, the euro zone bond is not something you can introduce in an emergency meeting at midnight tomorrow.

The French finance minister warned that the German ban could reduce liquidity in euro-zone bond markets.

Further negotiations with the euro zone and International Monetary Fund aren't likely to be easy.

The view is also destabilizing, because the way out of this trap would be via a shift of the euro zone into external surplus.

FOR more than a year the euro zone's debt drama has lurched from one nail-biting scene to another.

ONE by one, euro-zone governments have been confecting austerity plans in a bid to reassure jumpy bond markets.

Radical fiscal austerity plans among nations along the euro-zone periphery threaten to shrink gross domestic product faster than deficits.

For now, the euro zone's core countries are likely to do better than those on the periphery.

If you recall, this benighted agreement was the euro zone's sole defense against charges of being a suboptimal currency area.

The (euro zone) banks are much more stable and able to get their own funding. They are relying less on the European Central Bank.

The tight focus on foreign exchange is new for the Treasury market and is a result of the euro zone crisis.

The euro-zone leaders said the private sector's "contribution" would amount to ? 37 billion through 2014 and ?