European Leaders Look to I.M.F. for Assistance, Again, as Euro Crisis Lingers |
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12/3/2011
European leaders are looking outside the Continent for help solving the longstanding crisis over the euro, but while the International Monetary Fund may be able to help, it will not be the magic wand they seek.
European leaders are looking outside the Continent for help solving the longstanding crisis over the euro, but while the International Monetary Fund may be able to help, it will not be the magic wand they seek.
The fund may be asked to assist further as leaders of the 17 European Union nations that use the euro meet to prepare for a summit meeting on Thursday and Friday. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France are scheduled to hold talks in Paris on Monday, and, at the request of President Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is meeting with European leaders later in the week.
European Union leaders have already turned to the I.M.F. to assist smaller nations like Ireland, Greece and Portugal. In all three, the fund is providing about a third of the necessary loans and its expertise in guiding countries with solvency problems back to recovery. Last month, at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Cannes, the fund was also asked to monitor the economic, fiscal and structural reforms in huge and shaky Italy — not as a lender, at least not yet, but rather to lend its skills and credibility to the efforts of the new prime minister, Mario Monti, a technocrat.
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