PARIS (MNI) – European leaders have made progress in confronting
the debt crisis but financial markets are still not convinced that the
euro will survive the turmoil, European Central Bank Governing Council
Member Carlos Costa said Tuesday.
Costa, who is governor of the Bank of Portugal, said in a speech
here that the crisis was “threatening the very survival” of the single
currency because “markets are yet to be convinced of the irreversibility
of the euro.”
Costa did not directly address Portugal’s economy or its E78
billion bailout, but he called for broad reforms to make the “economic
pillar” of the single currency as strong as the “monetary pillar.”
In addition to budget consolidation to meet fiscal targets and
structural reforms to create growth in the medium term, Costa said that
economic growth in the short term was also necessary.
Progress to overcome the crisis will not endure “without
sustainable and equitable economic growth and job creation,” he said.
“We need to ensure that the EU is a positive-sum game and that
cross-country distribution of gains is well balanced.”
–Paris newsroom, +33142715540; jduffy@marketnews,com
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