IMF Director Gen says he is confident about the Spanish economy

Описание: (18 Jun 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero greeting International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director General Dominique Strauss Kahn on front steps at Moncloa Palace
2. Wide interior of Zapatero and Strauss in talks
3. Close of Strauss
4. Close of Zapatero
5. Zapatero and Strauss enter news conference
6. Zapatero and Strauss at podiums
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Strauss Kahn, Director General, International Monetary Fund (IMF):
"I am really confident, really confident in the medium term and long term prospects for the Spanish economy, providing that the efforts that have to be made will be made. And, from what I have seen today, these efforts are on the way. So I wanted to discuss with Jose Luis the forecasts he has, the way he wants to implement it and the political difficulties, because nobody can believe it is going to be easy."
8. Journalist writing on pad
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Strauss Kahn, Director General, International Monetary Fund (IMF):
"Addressing the effectiveness of the labour market is absolutely crucial in Spain. In doing this, the government, in my view, is not only trying to solve the immediate problem, it's building the foundations for growth for two decades in this country. Because, the potentialities of growth in Spain are huge, it has been shown during the last ten years to the surprise of many. Spain has been 'La Movida' was what people were talking about. Now you have problems. Normal. Everybody has problems; you have to solve the problem."
10. Cameraman
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Strauss Kahn, Director General, International Monetary Fund (IMF):
(talking about Portugal)
"The situation is not the same, mainly because, as I mentioned before, the level of public debt is much lower here than it is in Portugal and on top of that, private debt is rather high in Portugal. So the situation cannot be compared. You have many links and similarities with Portugal over history, but in this case I won't say the situations are comparable."
12. Zapatero and Strauss shake hands, leave news conference
STORYLINE
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero welcomed the director general of the International Monetary Fund for talks in Madrid on Friday, where he sought to allay market fears that Spain may be the next country to need a financial rescue plan.
Dominique Strauss Kahn said he was "really confident in the medium term and long term prospects for the Spanish economy, providing that the efforts that have to be made will be made. And, from what I have seen today, these efforts are on the way."
European leaders meeting at Thursday's summit of the 27-nation bloc in Brussels also insisted that they were not worried.
Under intense pressure from markets and other EU nations, Zapatero has enacted an austerity plan in a bid to bring a bloated deficit of 11.2 percent of GDP in 2009 to the 3 percent by 2013.
He also has decreed long-awaited labour market reforms in the hope of bringing down a soaring 20 percent unemployment rate.
Spain is also trying to stem speculation that it could follow Greece in requiring financial aid to rescue its banking system by announcing it would test how well its major banks could cope with more losses if the economy worsens and house prices tumble further.
Spain's move inspired the EU's broader decision to publish "stress tests" checking the stability of the of the bloc's banks.
In a sign markets are worried about Spain, investors charged the government sharply higher interest rates at a Thursday bond auction that raised 3.5 billion euros (4.3 billion US dollars).

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...