FRANKFURT (MNI) – Despite some skepticism from Germany’s chancellor
that a financial transaction tax could be implemented on a global level,
“there is absolutely no question that the desired scenario would be to
implement” the measure globally, Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell
told German television Tuesday morning.
Proell, who is also the country’s vice chancellor, told Morgen
Magazin that he saw many possibilities that might convince the United
Kingdom, a skeptic of such a proposal, of the need for such a tax.
Asked if the European Union/IMF rescue plan agreed to last week has
failed since the euro has continued to fall, Proell responded,
“Definitely not! You have to look at what happened” after the program
was agreed to, noting the fall in sovereign spreads of peripheral
European countries.
“You cannot infer from the euro exchange rate whether the program
is working or not,” he said. “We are in the biggest crisis since 1945
and it is the hardest test for the euro.”
–Frankfurt bureau; +49-69-720142; frankfurt@marketnews.com
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