Pressure in Europe Builds for Banking Reform
June 15, 2012
United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Pressure for financial reform is building in Europe. This week the financial services company Moody’s Investors Service reduced Spain’s credit rating. The rating was cut from A3 to baa3. That means that Moody’s judges the credit risk of Spanish debt has moved from very low to moderate.
The company said it acted because Spain is borrowing about one hundred twenty-five billion dollars in rescue loans for its banks.
Debt markets punished Spain by pushing up the interest rate on its long-term debt to about six point eight percent. That increases Spain’s borrowing costs and hurts its already troubled economy. Spain was not the only country to get downgraded by Moody’s. Cyprus got the same treatment.
On Wednesday, American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. He said the increase in borrowing costs for European countries like Spain means European officials must move quickly to avoid growing costs.
TIM GEITHNER: “If you wait to move in these things and you let the market get ahead of you, then you increase the costs of the solution and you make it harder to get there--you get too much momentum—it’s very costly. Once you decide, there’s no argument for doing it slowly.”
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