SEVEN WORLD leaders yesterday demanded Europe act more decisively to quell its debt crisis as a European Central Bank study warned that the entire euro currency project was now in peril.
As top finance officials gathered in Washington for meetings of the Group of 20 and International Monetary Fund, an open letter to G20 president France from the leaders of Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Britain, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea stressed the threat of the euro zone crisis spreading worldwide.
“Euro zone governments and institutions must act swiftly to resolve the euro crisis and all European economies must confront the debt overhang to prevent contagion to the wider global economy,” the seven leaders wrote. “The euro zone must look at all possible options to ensure long-term stability in the world’s second largest international currency.”
US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner also stepped up his warnings to Europe, saying that stemming the crisis was more important than efforts to boost European growth, and that it was essential to provide enough resources to prevent a Greek default. But he expressed faith Europe would act.
“They recognise that if you let, as the United States did in the early part of 2008, the momentum of these concerns build, they’re very hard to arrest, much more expensive to arrest.” – (Reuters)
