Monti seeks support amid euro crisis

Associated Press

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti gestures as he speaks in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. He has urged lawmakers to accelerate the passage of reforms that could help Italy escape the deepening debt crisis.

Rome/Brussels - Technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti appealed to Italy's politicians on Wednesday to back his tough economic medicine to avoid Rome becoming the next victim of the euro debt crisis, after a bailout for Spain's banks failed to calm markets.

Monti, whose approval rating has slumped as new taxes take hold and recession bites, told parliament in Rome: “We should use these new difficulties to double our efforts both on the European front and within Italian politics.”

Four days after EU partners lent Spain's banks up to 100-billion euros, Madrid's sovereign debt rating was cut by three notches to Baa3 from A3 by Moody's, which noted the rescue plan for the banks will add to government debt. Citing Madrid's own difficulties borrowing in the markets and weak economy, the agency said it could cut the rating further.

A Reuters poll of economists found that 35 out of 59 think Spain will follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a full state bailout within 12 months.

Still, 37 out of 59 expected the currency union to survive in its current form for at least another year - albeit with a very weak economy given the obstacles Europe's leaders face in trying to resolve the two-year old sovereign debt crisis.

“It's not a question of whether the crisis will get worse before it gets better, but rather it must get worse before it gets better,” said Richard McGuire, senior fixed income strategist at Rabobank International in London.

In a sign of the concern growing at the White House that a failure in Europe to find the road back to growth might bar Barack Obama's path to re-election in November, the US president called EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy to discuss the financial crisis, a spokesperson in Brussels said.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said later that the European leaders maintained a strong political commitment to making the euro work.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, speaking in Madrid, said that while each country had to take its own measures to clean up public finances and reform the economy, only closer European integration could solve the crisis.

“This situation can only be fixed by doing what must be done at home and with much more Europe and much more integration,” the Spanish leader said. “The most urgent thing is that there should be more clarity on the euro zone.”

European Union paymaster Germany urged Italians to implement Monti's painful fiscal and economic reforms to stay out of the danger zone: “If Italy continues along Monti's path there will be no risks,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview with La Stampa daily when asked whether Rome was next in the markets' firing line.

Monti met Schaeuble in Berlin later and said Italy was preparing to sell state assets but did not need a new austerity programme to meet its budget goals.

In remarks aimed at those in Rome and other capitals who are wary of German calls for closer harmony among euro zone governments on their budgets, Monti, a former EU commissioner, said it was better to “share sovereignty” in a union that to be subjected willy-nilly to decisions made by bigger powers.

Highlighting the peril for Italy, the euro zone's third biggest economy had to pay nearly four percent to sell one-year treasury bills at auction on Wednesday, a six-month high, due to fears about its ability to keep servicing its debt mountain.

Italy's 1.9 trillion euro ($2.4 trillion) public debt is equivalent to 120 percent of gross domestic product, a ratio second only to Greece. A month ago, Rome had paid just 2.34 percent on one-year paper.

Schaeuble said Italy had made huge progress under Monti's government, which has taken austerity measures and launched pension and labour market reforms since replacing Silvio Berlusconi's scandal-plagued administration in November.

“This is acknowledged everywhere in Europe and by the markets,” the German minister said. “I can only hope that political forces in the Italian parliament and public opinion continue to decisively back him, because the road towards a return to sustainable growth through structural reforms, improved competitiveness and a lower deficit is the right one.”

Monti, whose popularity has slumped after an initial honeymoon, met the leaders of the parties backing him in parliament on Tuesday and urged them to give their unified support to help Italy through market turmoil.

Markets calmed slightly on Wednesday due to expectations of further euro zone policy action to tackle the debt crisis, but investors remain wary ahead of a general election in Greece on Sunday that could lead to the country leaving the euro area. - Reuters