...no comment...the Bruxelles delapidators...

The slump in business lending has deepened, it has emerged, further sharpening the contrast with a surging mortgage market.

Companies took £4.7bn less in loans in November, the biggest drop in more than two years and nearly five times the recent average monthly decline of £1bn, according to figures from the Bank of England. The slide was due to a fall in lending to large businesses, as loans to small and medium-sized companies actually edged up slightly.

Economists are split over whether the decline is due to weak demand for bank finance or lenders’ reluctance to grant loans to business.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS, said the data suggested that banks “have yet to become markedly more prepared to lend to businesses amid the improved economic situation and outlook”. But Blerina Uruçi, economist at Barclays, believes businesses are unlikely to be held back by weak bank finance as the corporate sector has amassed a large cash surplus in recent years. Businesses are also increasingly turning to the bond market as a cheaper alternative.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, has redoubled efforts to boost business lending by making it the sole beneficiary of the Funding for Lending Scheme, which allows lenders to borrow at rock-bottom rates in exchange for providing loans. Previously, the scheme applied to all loans.

Britain will give an extra £10bn to the European Union because of the weakness of struggling eurozone economies, it has emerged. The British contribution to the EU will rise dramatically from £30bn to £40bn over the next five years, the Office for Budget Responsibility said. It includes a surprise £2.2bn jump in funding to £8.7bn this year.  EU contributions are calculated in part according to each state’s national income.   The growth forecasts across Europe have been cut as eurozone economies, particularly Greece, France and Italy, struggle under a debt crisis, leaving Britain to make up the shortfall – costing the taxpayer an extra £1bn a year. How much longer are the taxpayers of this once great country going to tolerate the increasing financial support of this failing, tyrannical dictatorship, especially while our own public services are declining?
Are our fools and cretins of politicians, who are mostly in favor of this abomination waiting to be physically removed from Parliament?
The entire lib/lab/con are hell bent on keeping Britain in the EU, so it's time they were all removed from government!...If you take into account, the money Britain will have to spend to "welcome" the people from Bulgaria and Romania heading towards what they think is an Eldorado, it is much more than £10 billions. Thank you very much, anyway, as a French, I rather see them coming in the UK and as you are explained day after day by people living in huge houses in Surrey, with private medical care and with their children privately educated that it is for your benefit, you should call yourselves lucky....  "It includes a surprise £2.2bn jump in funding to £8.7bn this year."  This wasn't a surprise, the EU came begging for a bail out, what was surprising, was the little press it received?

This is why we are needed in the EU, to pay for all the little countries they admit, even when their finances don't meet the criteria!  From next June, we will be powerless in our decision making, the EU / US FTA is due to be signed then, this deal, gives companies complete control over us, even now, Tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Australia for billions of dollars in lost profits because the government took action to reduce teenage smoking. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is suing Canada for $500 million, just because Canada has laws to keep essential drugs affordable and the Nuclear industry is suing the German government. This is all happening in International courts, out of the public eye, via other TTiP deals. Lets get together and stop this one!  

The chancellor warned Britain is “too dependent” on weak European markets and must look to the Far East for growth.

The Euro area is forecast to shrink by 0.4 per cent this year and instability in the region is the first threat to Britain’s recovery, Mr Osborne said.
He has doubled the export finance capacity to £50bn to support British businesses that want to trade in new markets.
“The Prime Minister’s visit to China this week is the latest step in this Government’s determined plan to increase British exports to the faster growing emerging markets – something our country should have done many years ago,” Mr Osborne said.

 

Dynamic, fast-growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are driving a recovery that will transform the UK’s economic landscape, London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet said yesterday.   Speaking at the launch of the LSE’s publication 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain, Mr Rolet gave an upbeat assessment of their impact on economic growth.   “Vibrant, dynamic SMEs are the engine of the capitalist economy,” he said. “Large caps and the public sector have created no new net jobs over the last eight years – SMEs are powering our recovery”.   The 1,000 companies identified by the research agency Growth Intelligence have an average revenue growth of 80pc over the last three years and span 100 different sectors and every region. Far from being dead, manufacturing accounts for nearly one in five of the list – significantly more than the 105 technology companies represented.   While 267 of the companies are London-based, more come from the north of England than from the South East excluding the capital.  Mr Rolet said the debate over SME finance had focused too much on bank lending: “We need to balance bank financing with equity, building a funding ladder that starts with Business Angels and goes up through venture capitalists to private equity and the public markets”.  He praised initiatives, such as the abolition of stamp duty on AIM shares, making it easier to invest in SMEs and contributing to the strongest AIM performance since 2007 with 45 IPOs.  Featured companies include Mulberry, Addison Lee and Hunter Boot, as well as “hidden gems” specializing in everything from motor racing to animal antibiotics.

"David Cameron and other European

Union leaders need to show the same political courage and vision of Winston Churchill's call for "a kind of United States of Europe", José Manuel Barroso has said."

It takes possibly more courage to say "NO" to such nonsense.

Continuing down the now clearly wrong path. with a EU that has changed almost completely from the "Common Market" it started out as, will require courage, a lot of it, and the ordinary working people have that in abundance- question is which of our "leaders" has that and is willing to pay the price it requires- "You cannot please all of the people all of the time!" The wise leader right now will see that its much better. long-term, to please his own people, and stop listening to the EU loonies who say thay can please all the people, all the time- they can't, they haven't and they won't ! Get us out of this obvious compromised loyalty mess- get out of the EU, and do it NOW!...This man and Van Rumpooy are at the top of the EU tree. Unelected by any of the people of the EU they have insurmountable power and can do as they wish. Thus we the people have been denied democracy. They are not bound by MEP's voting in the EU parliament and can and do ignore their wishes. EU rules trump national laws and regulation where the EU has competency, The EU has competency where it has been given to them by the governments(politicians) of the sovereign members. Thus we have a politburo largely ruling over us. Not the trading arrangement that was voted on in the 1970's is it. They use every crisis as a means of even more control over our lives. The EU is like a rather fat and unpleasant spider, and we are caught in its web!...I have been warning about the ever increasing powers of the EU for some time now, could this be the straw that finally breaks the camels back? What sovereign Govt. will tolerate such interference in it's financial affairs? If this measure is allowed to happen it signals the end of Democracy in Europe, is that a price worth paying? As I see it we now have no choice but to vote UKIP to remove ourselves from this wholly dictatorial club before we lose our sovereignty forever, Rule Britannia!!

China and France should strengthen high-level exchanges to enhance mutual trust and deepen strategic cooperation on both bilateral and international issues, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.

Wang arrived in France on Wednesday for a two-day visit, which will pave way for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to France next year which marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The trip to France is Wang's first official visit to Europe as foreign minister. He met French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and exchanged views with them on hot international topics including the Syrian and Iranian issues.

"The relations between China and France go far beyond the bilateral realm and have distinct strategic importance. Therefore we should strengthen not only our bilateral cooperation but also coordination on major international issues," Wang said at a news conference.

China and France have vast potential to cooperate in areas such as urbanization, information technologies and agricultural modernization, he said.

Wang also reiterated China's position on the Syrian issue which is to support the settlement of the crisis through political means.

"China supports the second round of Geneva peace talk and the international community should create favorable conditions for various parties in Syria to reach a consensus for the settlement," he said.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will soon visit China for the preparation of the 50th anniversary of China-France relations, according to the French Foreign Minister Fabius.

He said that France has decided to further simplify the visa application procedures for Chinese citizens, which will allow them to get French visa in just two days.

Fabius also noted that the French government wants to deepen cooperation with China on environmental issues as Paris will hold the United Nations Climate Conference in 2015.

The European Union wasted almost £6 billion last year on fraudulent, illegal or ineligible spending projects, official auditors have found.

At a time of unprecedented European-wide austerity, the EU mis-spent almost 5 per cent of its budget in 2012 on projects that should never have received any of its money.

This so-called ‘error rate’ in Brussels spending was up from 3.9 per cent the previous year, according to the auditors. It meant that for the 19th year in a row, they refused to give the EU’s accounts a clean bill of health.

EU bureaucrats were accused of “shambolic” mismanagement yesterday in the wake of the report, with Conservative MEPs suggesting it appeared as though Brussels simply had a licence to Carry on Squandering’.

The European Court Auditors (ECA) found that 4.8 per cent of the EU’s £117 billion budget in 2012 - £5.7 billion - was spent in “error”, on projects that were either tainted by fraud or ineligible for grants under Brussels’ rules. This meant British taxpayers saw up to £832 million of their contributions to the EU wasted at a time of deep public spending cuts domestically. The EU spending watchdog found that supervision and control of Brussels spending was only “partially effective in ensuring the legality and regularity of payments underlying the accounts”. 

“All policy groups covering operational expenditure are materially affected by error,” the auditors concluded.

“For these reasons it is the ECA’s opinion that payments underlying the accounts are materially affected by error.”

A British Government spokesman yesterday described the findings as “unacceptable and undermining the credibility of EU spending”.

“When countries across Europe are taking difficult decisions to tackle their deficits, Europe’s taxpayers need to have confidence that every effort is being made to improve the way EU spending is managed,” she said.

Included among the “errors” discovered by the auditors was a Polish landowner paid almost £80,000 a year to maintain 350 acres of grassland to help preserve uncut grassland for the protection of endangered bird species. In fact, the farmer had only met the agreed funding requirements for 14 per cent of the land and the payments.

“Similar cases of non-compliance with agri-environment requirements were detected in the Czech Republic, Germany , Greece, France and the United Kingdom,” found the auditors.

The EU’s regional policy spending had an error rate of 6.8 per cent, or £2.4 billion, of the £34 billionn spent in 2012. Most ineligible funding followed a failure to follow EU laws on public procurement and issuing of contracts.

The error rate in “external relations, aid and enlargement” spending overseen by Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign minister, totalled 3.3 per cent, or £169 million of £5 billion in spending.

In one case, the European Commission paid £14 million for a programme to support female teachers in rural Bangladesh but over half the money was given with “no documentation”.

Philip Bradbourn MEP, the Conservative spokesman on EU budgetary control, described the latest audit as “another year, another story of lax monitoring and shambolic control”.

“If you found misappropriation and misspending on this scale in a commercial business — or in a properly-accountable public administration — there would be sackings all round. In Brussels, it’s ’Carry on Squandering’,” he said.

Vitor Caldeira, the president of the EU auditors, warned that poor financial planning by the European Commission for “will put added pressure on EU cash flows and may increase the risk of error over the next few years”.

“Europe’s citizens have a right to know what their money is being spent on and whether it is being used properly,” he said.

Meanwhile, EU funds worth £418 million intended to help rebuild the Italian city of L’Aquila and the Abruzzo region after an 2009 earthquake have been mired in suspected corruption, a separate European Parliament report has found.

Serious allegations have surfaced that part of the money spent on building new accommodation for the earthquake’s victims was paid to companies with “direct or indirect ties” to organised crime because it was paid in breach of public procurement rules.

Several hundreds of people were protesting in the village of Silistea-Pungesti in Eastern Romania on Wednesday against plans by US company Chevron to start operating the first shale gas exploration drill in the county of Vaslui, news agency Agerpres reports.

Protesters - some of whom have come from the Barlad, Iasi and other cities in the region of Moldova, Eastern Romania, some of whom are locals from Pungesti - installed tents on the field where Chevron machines are to be deployed. They remained there over night to protest today and said they would not leave the perimeter and would not allow representatives of the US company to come to the area.

On Wednesday afternoon, some 500 people were taking part in the protest. Some locals forced a line of intervention police deployed in the area and managed to reach the perimeter they were not allowed in. Vaslui county prefect Radu Renga warned that laws must be complied it and that gendarmes have to intervene when public order and traffic on public roads are affected.

The first exploration drill is to be deployed in the close vicinity of the village of Pungesti.

Chevron Romania holds another three certificates for the county of Vaslui to start explorations in order to identify possible shale gas reserves.

Deutsche bank posts surprise loss.

Germany - Deutsche bank posted a surprise net loss of €2.2bn for the fourth quarter. Germany's biggest bank was hit by hefty litigation and restructuring charges as the bank slims down, in light of the changing investment banking environment. Deutsche is being investigated for alleged manipulation of benchmark interest rates. Today it announced €1bn in litigation charges in the fourth quarter, which it said reflected "adverse court rulings and developments in regulatory investigations". Co-chief executives Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain said: We embarked upon the path of deliberate but sometimes uncomfortable change in order to deliver long term, sustainable success for the bank. Simultaneously, we set the bank on course for fundamental cultural change. This journey will take years, not months. Last week Germany's second-biggest lender, Commerzbank said it was planning to cut as many as 6,000 jobs, or more than 10% of its workforce. Secret Monte dei Paschi document found in 14th-century palace. At the risk of sounding flippant, Italy's Monte dei Paschi scandal has to be one of the more colorful banking scandals. For a start, it deals with the world's oldest bank, established in 1472 to lend to "the poor or miserable or needy". Now it seems the secret document at the heart of the scandal lay for months in a concealed safe in a 14th-century Tuscan palace. Silvia Aloisi and Stefano Bernabei of Reuters report: Chief executive Fabrizio Viola said he learned about the safe's contents only last October, a full 10 months after he had been called in to sort out Italy's third biggest bank. The 2009 document revealing derivatives deals that have run up huge losses for Banca Monte dei Paschi (BMPS.MI) came to light in the office of Viola's predecessor at the bank's headquarters in Siena. 'The document was in a safe, moreover in an office that was no longer mine,' said Viola. 'I don't think that the person who put it there had been trying to hide it. But there is no doubt that the document had not been used in the bank's accounting.' The document found at the 540-year-old bank's head offices – which are appropriately in a restored ancient fortress – was a contract mandating Japanese bank Nomura to carry out deals on behalf of Monte dei Paschi.

Reuters has got hold of a draft copy of the Troika's latest assessment of Greece, following their recent visit.

No major shocks... international lenders concluded that Greece is on track to hit its targets this year and in 2014, but warns it will struggle to fully return to the financial markets after that date.

The Troika also chides Athens for being too slow to privatize state assets....Here's Reuters' early take: Greece is set to meet its budget targets this year and next but must step up privatizations and public sector reform, the country's international lenders said in a draft report obtained by Reuters on Monday.  The report by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund assessing the country's progress in meeting its bailout goals, said the country's privatization revenue target had been lowered for 2013 to €2bn ($2.59 billion) from €2.6bn euros.  "While progress has been made in preparing assets for privatization, the overall speed of the privatization process remains unsatisfactory," said the report.  The document adds to evidence that the debt-laden country still faces big hurdles to standing on its own feet, despite the fiscal progress made by its coalition government and about 200 billion euros in rescue loans it has obtained from the EU/IMF since mid-2010.  Even though Athens' overall debt outlook remains unchanged as it overachieves on budget cuts, Greece would take several years to fully return to capital markets once funding from the bailout program ends in 2014, the report said....But where are the hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Spanish, Cypriots .. in the streets demanding immediate exit from the euro?   Even in strike-happy Greece, SYRIZA (and far left too -- apparently), the country's second party in popularity, says that Greece's place is in the euro!  And you're complaining, are you, about the Greek/Spanish/Cypriot...-bashing when in each and every of these countries there simply are no popular parties demanding immediate exit from the common currency. I'd say, either Greeks, Spanish, Cypriots...are into masochism or the press is terribly out of tune with what these countries' peoples really want. Each of those countries that you say are bashed would still need to auction their sov. bonds, even if tomorrow they were back to their original currencies. I am certain the bashing would not stop with their their old currencies reinstated.

 

Eurozone is in recession and going into a deflationary spiral, France is a basket case the UK will escape the EU....As far as I can see Greece, Italy, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Hungary and  Slovenia have had their economies totally shafted by the Euro. Now even the big guns of France and Holland are going down. Even the mighty Germany is shrinking and heading for deflation. Please forgive me if I say do the opposite to whatever is happening in the Eurozone, avoid these policies, prod with bargepole etc. ... They're a bunch of raving lunatics FFS.   The EU wouldn't exist if not for the British Commonwealth, United States and Russia. Plus we formed a successful single currency area several hundred years ago that will outlast the eurozone. The arrogance appears to lie with the bumbling continentals who wouldn't listen to those who said that there was a need for political union before currency union. So we have every right to lecture the rest of the EU.... The Commission forecast says euro-area growth will shrink by 0.4% this year, down from 0.3% forecast in February.  France will go into recession this year with negative growth of 0.1% and unemployment rising to 10.9% in 2014 from 10.6% this year.  On Thursday, the European Central Bank cut interest rates on growth worries.  "Grappling with the aftermath of a profound financial and economic crisis, the EU economy is set to pick up speed only very slowly in the course of this year," the report said.  It predicted that France's deficit would rise sharply from 3.9% of GDP this year to 4.2% in 2014. That prompted the EU's commissioner for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, on Friday to say it would be "reasonable" to give France two extra years to meet the EU deficit target of 3%.  However, Reuters reported a French finance ministry official as saying that, despite Mr Rehn's comments, the country would stick to its aim of meeting the 3% target in 2014.

George Soros, the billionaire speculator best known as "the man who broke the Bank of England" in 1992, has launched a stinging critique of Germany's role in the euro crisis and suggested the single currency's prospects would be improved if its most dominant member were to quit. In an incendiary speech made on Tuesday afternoon in Germany's financial centre of Frankfurt, the hedge fund trader told Europe's richest country it had gone too far during the bailout of Cyprus, was itself heading for recession and should either leave the euro or reverse its long held opposition to eurobonds – a form of sovereign debt that would mean each member country's borrowings were guaranteed by the whole eurozone.  "My first preference is eurobonds; my second is Germany leaving the euro," he said in his lecture, entitled: How to save the European Union from the euro crisis. "It is up to Germany to decide whether it is willing to authorise eurobonds or not," he said at Frankfurt's centre for financial studies.  "But it has no right to prevent the heavily indebted countries from escaping their misery by banding together and issuing eurobonds.  "In other words, if Germany is opposed to eurobonds it should consider leaving the euro and letting others introduce them." In an address which appealed over German chancellor Angela Merkel and directly to German voters, who go to the polls in federal elections later this year, Soros implored the country to change course. "I hope that by offering you a different perspective I may get you to reconsider your position before more damage is done," he said. "That is my goal in coming here."

He added: "The financial problem is that Germany is imposing the wrong policies on the eurozone. Austerity doesn't work. You cannot shrink the debt burden by shrinking the deficit.

Waiting for poverty to strike is no game. It makes ordinary men and women helpless, desperate and scared. "If you look at it mathematically, there is no way out: we will just never be able to repay our bills to the EU and IMF," said Haris Christou, one young Cypriot speaking for his compatriots. "Am I afraid? Of course I am afraid. Everybody knows everything in Cyprus is going to get bad, really bad. And nobody knows where exactly we are headed."

On Wednesday night men and women, some young, some old, gave voice to that fear. They gathered outside the offices of the European commission, and then lined the road that leads up to Cyprus's colonial-era presidential palace, to protest against a rescue programme that, wittingly or not, will destroy their country's banking sector and bring its economy to its knees.

"Out with the troika", "Fuck the troika", "Go home Troika", said the placards. "No to the policies of austerity." "No to privatisations." "No to the memorandum of catastrophe."

But more than words, or any amount of hoarse chanting, it is uncertainty that now speaks loudest in Cyprus. The uncertainty that has come with the knowledge that the island's economic output will shrink dramatically as a result of the austerity now being demanded in return for €10bn in aid. The uncertainty unleashed by policies that will see many Cypriots wake up with much less than they once had in the bank. And the insecurity of suddenly being the subject of capital controls that possibly could change Cypriots' lives for years....I, too, would be inclined to withdraw all my funds from any Cyprus bank and I suspect there will be a run on them. There are 'policies in place' to restrict such a run but I don't see how they can prevent people taking out what is their own money. That is the worry. The Russians called it theft and so would any Cypriot who cannot access savings. The safest place to deposit money is still the UK and I'm surprised that London has not offered to make itself a safe haven for Italians, Portuguese and the Spanish to place their life savings. That's what I'd do if I were a Mediterranean saver. The GBP and USD have their moments but nobody will lose a penny by keeping their money in those currencies which are trusted around the world. I don't know how any Cypriot would be able to do a SWIFT transaction to get cash out of harm's way but surely it can be done.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Cyprus not to "exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners", reports say. The head of one of Cyprus' biggest banks urged MPs to accept a levy on bank deposits. This was rejected on Tuesday, sparking a fresh eurozone confidence crisis. The eurozone is really turning the screw on Cyprus, and it's being led by Germany. The message is crystal clear - your economic model has to change. They will no longer accept the idea of a national economy within the eurozone that is dependent on its reputation as an offshore tax haven. There is huge irritation with the way the Cypriots have handled things, and that has led to the imposition of deadlines which mean big decisions need to be taken very quickly. The cost of cleaning up the Cypriot banking system must be borne by investors in the Cypriot banking system - like it or lump it. A much-delayed emergency session of parliament is due to vote on a new package of measures to raise the 5.8bn euros (£4.9bn; $7.5bn) needed to qualify for the 10bn-euro bailout. Averof Neophytou, deputy leader of the governing Democratic Rally party, said political leaders were nearing a compromise and a breakthrough was possible on Friday. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said the authorities were engaged in "hard negotiations with the troika", referring to the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the AFP news agency reports. The BBC's Chris Morris in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, says it is possible that the vote may be delayed once more but he says Cyprus is running out of time to rescue its economy. Banks have been closed since Monday and many businesses are only taking payment in cash.

Doing more with less money. This is what the European Council believes with the adoption of the conclusions of the MFF, the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. For the first time in history, the EU budget has been reduced. As a first reaction, the leaders of the biggest political groups in the European Parliament underlined in a joint statement that they cannot accept the deal reached by the European Council. MEPs debated the EU's long-term budget with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission President José Manuel Barroso here in the European Parliament. Watch this Event of the week ...The 'Event of the Week' is a weekly programme highlighting a key event in the European Parliament. This video will soon be available in German, French, Spanish and Italian on our website. ...For free broadcast-standard video, please visit http://epp.synapticdigital.com/ . If you are a first-time user, please take a moment to register. In case you have any questions, please email journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com. Please note that all our videos can be found on our YouTube Channel and Facebook page. For any comments and reactions please contact us at epp-tv@europarl.europa.eu or the Producer :ioannis.zografos@europarl.europa.eu

In a statement released this morning, leaders promised that their fiscal and monetary policies would “not target exchange rates.”

“We, the G7 Ministers and Governors, reaffirm our longstanding commitment to market-determined exchange rates and to consult closely in regard to actions in foreign exchange markets,” said the statement.

“We reaffirm that our fiscal and monetary policies have been and will remain oriented towards meeting our respective domestic objectives using domestic instruments, and that we will not target exchange rates.”

Spelling out the fears that have been raised, particularly by Francois Hollande, the French president, the statement added: “We are agreed that excessive volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. We will continue to consult closely on exchange markets and cooperate as appropriate.”

Fears of so-called “currency wars” were sparked when Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe ordered the country's central bank to be more expansionary. Mr Abe is determined to force down the value of the yen in a bid to boost exports and in turn Japan's sluggish economy.

What an asshole would say ....

Olli Rehn, the European Union's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, today warned that recession-hit Italy must continue to implement economic reforms once the election is decided.

"It's a very fragile situation. Whatever colour the new government in Italy has, it is important that it maintains the course of reform," he told Austria's Profil magazine.

Rehn also cautioned that the growing strength of the euro will hurt countries in southern Europe by causing "problems with their exports to other parts of the world".

Germany and France have clashed over whether EU officials should intervene in currency markets, and Mr Rehn today argued that countries around the world should work more closely together to offset the potential damage caused by currency fluctuations.

"I recognise the risk of competitive devaluation. We have recently warned the government of Japan about corresponding steps towards depreciation of the yen," he said.

"We need reforms in the international monetary system so as to avoid negative influences on international trade. The coordination within the G7, G20 or the IMF should therefore be improved," Mr Rehn added.

The Italian caretaker Prime Minister, Mario Monti, has promised to cut labour taxes in an interview seen as the launch of his election campaign. Mr Monti, who leads a centrist coalition while not standing as a candidate himself, also attacked conservative rival Silvio Berlusconi. In office he vowed to restore market confidence in Italy's finances. Wednesday saw him achieve his aim of halving the difference between Italy's and Germany's bond yields.

These indicate a country's cost of borrowing and reflect how nervous investors feel about lending to them. Germany is used as a benchmark as it is considered the safest bet in the eurozone.

The difference between Italy and Germany's yields dipped below 2.87 percentage points on Wednesday.

When Mr Monti took office as head of a technocratic government in November 2011, the spread had stood at 5.74 percentage points.

Mr Monti's centrist allies are in a three-way race with Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party on the right and the Democratic Party on the left. Speaking on radio, Mr Monti pledged to take measures to redistribute wealth in the country.  "We need to reduce taxes on the labour force, both on workers and companies, by cutting spending," he said. He defended his administration's record, saying that the "light at the end of the tunnel" was "much nearer".

Since withdrawing his party's support for the government in December, Mr Berlusconi has repeatedly launched attacks against the former European commissioner. "Berlusconi has made improper attacks against me - on areas like family values," Mr Monti said on Wednesday.

"I think I need make no further comment," he added, in an apparent reference to the string of sex scandals involving the veteran billionaire politician.  Mr Monti, a former economics professor, was chosen to impose financial rigour on the economy, after Mr Berlusconi quit the prime minister's job.  In power, Mr Monti made some progress early on, including raising the retirement age and structural reforms. However ordinary Italians have been hard hit by the combination of tax rises and spending cuts he imposed to repair Italy's public finances. Italians are due to go to the polls over the weekend of 24-25 February....
The Euro will survive even if the ECB has to kill Europeans and recycle them into Euro notes, bit like Soylent Green only bank notes instead of food. Interesting fact on the EU today, they have ordered all the cash machines in the Vatican City to be turned off because the Vatican has failed to comply with anti money laundering regulations. Is this the shape of things to come.

The European Central Bank has announced a shake-up of responsibilities among its executive board, putting new arrival Yves Mersch - formerly governor of Luxembourg's central bank - jointly in charge of heading up plans for the eurozone banking union alongside vice president Vitor Constancio.

Hungary's central bank has cut its interest rate - the highest in the EU - for the fifth time in as many months. The Magyar Nemzeti Bank lowered the two-week deposit rate to 5.75pc from 6pc, continuing a trend of lowering the rate by a quarter point every month. The bank's president is due to appear at a news conference this afternoon to explain the decision, which is perceived as risky in the face of high inflation of 5.2pc.

Bloomberg reports that central bank chiefs from across the world are set to meet as early as January 6 to revisit the terms of the Basel III rules drafted in 2010. At the heart of discussion will be requirements on how much liquid capital banks must hold as a proportion of their total balance sheet, which the regulations say should be enough to survive a 30-day credit squeeze. Central bankers, including ECB President Mario Draghi, say could drag down interbank lending, and slow economic recovery.

EU lawmakers have admitted they will fail to meet the globally-agreed January deadline for the implementation of tougher capital requirements on banks. A meeting planned for today to thrash out the final details of a deal after talks last week stopped short of full agreement has been postponed. The move sees the EU join the US in delaying the introduction of the regulation, known as the Basel III rules, which are widely expected to come into force one year later than planned, in January 2014.

Spanish economy minister Luis de Guindos has revealed plans to fully compensate those who lost investments by purchasing complex financial instruments they did not understand. His plans will give the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards misleadingly sold high-risk instruments a chance to claim compensation for the losses which followed the banks' €37bn bail-out.

As eurozone ministers prepare for yet another painful negotiation about how to prevent Greece plunging into its own catastrophic default, the fate of the Libertad – and a controversial US court judgment last week in favour of the vulture funds pursuing Argentina – is a reminder that the world desperately needs a better way of coping with countries that owe more than they could ever repay.

More than a decade after it suspended repayments on more than $90bn (£60bn) of debt, and long after its economy began to emerge from deep financial crisis, Argentina is locked in a seemingly intractable row with the "holdouts", as they are known, about how much is owed to them.  Vulture funds, which specialise in buying up the debts of countries already in distress at a fraction of their face value, when most investors have given up on being repaid, are actively pursuing Buenos Aires through the legal systems of scores of countries.  In a decision that sent shock waves through financial markets, a New York circuit judge ruled last week that even the banks handling Argentina's repayments to other bondholders would be "in active concert" with the country if they fail to co-operate in ensuring that the vultures – in this case, Elliott Capital Management – have their feast.

After years of negotiations, over 90% of creditors signed up to two separate deals, in 2005 and 2010, which wiped out 70% of the value of the unpayable debts but at least meant some repayments would be made.