BRUSSELS -- With Italy sinking rapidly into financial chaos, the eurozone's 17 finance ministers scrambled Tuesday to find enough money to give their rescue fund a veneer of credibility and the markets some reason to believe their embattled currency won't break up.
Italy's borrowing rates shot up above 7 percent, an unsustainable level in the long term and a shocking increase over rates just last month. Markets rose for the second day Tuesday on hopes that the enormous pressures on the ministers would produce some results.
Early in their meeting, the finance ministers averted an imminent disaster in Greece, approving the next installment of the country's bailout loan - euro8 billion ($10.7 billion). Without that money, Greece would have run out of cash before Christmas, leaving it unable to pay its employees or provide services. Two officials in Brussels reported the development, speaking on condition of anonymity while the meeting was still going on.
The installment is part of a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout package from eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund that has kept Greece afloat since May 2010. The new cash came after the EU demanded, and received, letters from top Greek political leaders pledging their support for tough new austerity measures.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/29/2523438/pressure-builds-as-eurozone-ponders.html#ixzz1f85I62jK
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