BRUSSELS (MNI) – Spain’s Prime Minister dismissed rumours that his
country will require financial aid as “complete madness” on Tuesday
and said he had full confidence in the country’s solvency and economic
recovery prospects.
After heavily indebted Greece was given a E110-billion bail out
package by its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund on
Sunday, market participants speculated that other high-debt countries
like Spain and Portugal could ask for help.
“I was told something about this rumour,” Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told reporters in Brussels, before
dismissing it as “complete madness” and saying his country has “strong
solvency.”
“We’ve got to use objective facts as a basis,” he said, adding that
Spain’s debt “is 20 points below the EU average in terms of GDP.”
“I don’t think there’s any reason whatsoever for saying this, the
important thing is that in the economic indicators we have shown that
there is economic recovery and growth,” Zapatero said.
“Rumours like this can damage our interests as a country, that’s
intolerable,” he added.
“I have every confidence in the fortitude and in the solvency of
our country and in the ability to recover in economic terms,” Zapatero
said, adding that he also had confidence in neighbour Portugal.
“There is no foundation (for such allegations), the International
Monetary Fund has said this quite clearly,” he said.
The Prime Minister will attend a meeting of EU leaders on Friday in
Brussels, which he said will give Greece “definitive support.”
“Greece will have what it requires,” he said, stressing the
commitment of the Eurozone countries to the E110 billion aid deal for
Greece.
I am “confident we will be restating our shared…commitment,” he
said, adding that all Eurozone and EU countries were “rowing in the same
direction.”
–Brussels: +32 487 (0) 32 803 665; email: echarlton@marketnews.com
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