Posted on 09/17/2011 1:15:13 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
“As the coming week is particularly critical for the implementation of the July 21 decisions in the euro area and the initiatives which the country must undertake, Prime Minister George Papandreou decided to cancel his scheduled visit to the US,” his office said last night.
Greece is under pressure to fulfill commitments made to its European Union partners in return for another tranche of funding to prevent default.
The surprise move came after heightened tensions between Europe and the US atf a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland.
Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, defended the eurozone’s financial position arguing it was better than other “major advanced economies”.
“If I take the European Union as a whole, or the euro area as a whole, you have a situation that is quite encouraging if you compare [it] with other major advanced economies,” Mr Trichet said.
“We will probably post at the end of the year a deficit of public finance around 4.5pc of gross domestic product, when in other major advanced economies it is ... 10pc.”
He made the comments a day after Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, joined EU ministers at the meeting and urged the eurozone to act quickly and decisively to resolve the region’s sovereign debt crisis. European officials said Mr Geithner called on ministers to increase the size of a €440bn rescue fund already in place.
However, in a move likely to frustrate the US, European ministers deferred a decision on a further tranche of bail-out money for Greece until October.
Grave fears remain over the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, and in particular the threat of a potential Greek default spreading to other countries such as Italy and Spain.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
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