BRUSSELS (MNI) – The UK stands ready to provide aid to debt-ridden
Ireland if needed, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said on
Wednesday.
“Ireland is our closest neighbour and it’s in Britain’s national
interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable
banking system. So Britain stands ready to support Ireland in the steps
that it needs to take to bring about that stability,” Osborne said as he
arrived for a meeting of EU finance ministers here.
Bailing out Ireland’s banks will push the country’s budget deficit
to 32% of its GDP this year, well beyond the EU’s stipulated 3% limit.
Even stripping out the banks, the deficit is expected to be 11.9% of
GDP, still the largest in the Eurozone.
That has prompted intense speculation in recent days that Ireland
won’t be able to manage its debt burden alone and will have to take
external help.
Talks on a possible loan deal for Ireland are intensifying and a
technical mission of officials from the European Central Bank, the EU
and the International Monetary Fund will travel to Dublin to prepare a
possible programme, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary
Affairs Olli Rehn said late Tuesday.
But he stressed that debt-ridden Ireland hasn’t asked for aid yet
and the talks, which are expected to be “short” and “focused,” are only
preparatory at this stage.
“We have seen a first step towards stabilizing the uncertainty, the
next step must obviously be a broad-based fiscal consolidation,” Swedish
Finance Minister Anders Borg said as he arrived for the meeting in
Wednesday morning.
–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
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