الرئيسية
The IMF has prepared a rescue plan worth up to 600
billion euros ($794 billion) if the debt crisis in Italy deteriorates,
Italian newspaper La Stampa has reported, citing IMF
officials.(AFP/File/Mandel Ngan)
By AFP
ROME (AFP) - The IMF could bail out Italy with up to 600
billion euros ($794 billion), an Italian newspaper reported on Sunday,
as Prime Minister Mario Monti came under pressure to speed up
anti-crisis measures.
The money would give Monti a window of 12
to 18 months to implement urgent budget cuts and growth-boosting reforms
"by removing the necessity of having to refinance the debt," La Stampa
reported, citing IMF officials in Washington.
The IMF would
guarantee rates of 4.0 percent or 5.0 percent on the loan -- far better
than the borrowing costs on commercial debt markets, where the rate on
two-year and five-year Italian government bonds has risen above 7.0
percent.
The size of the loan would make it difficult for the IMF
to use its current resources so different options are being explored,
including possible joint action with the European Central Bank in which
the IMF would be guarantor.
"This scenario is because resistance
from Berlin to a greater role for the ECB in helping states in
difficulty -- starting with Italy -- could be overcome if the funds are
given out under strict IMF surveillance," the report said.
The
European Union and the ECB have sent auditors to check Italy's public
accounts this month and the IMF is set to send experts soon under a
special surveillance mechanism agreed at the G20 summit in France
earlier this month.
Monti's predecessor Silvio Berlusconi said at
that summit that he had turned down an offer of financial aid in the
form of a precautionary credit line from the IMF, although IMF chief
Christine Lagarde later denied the claim.
"IMF intervention is
inevitable but not enough," Paolo Guerrieri, economist at the College of
Europe in Bruges, was quoted by La Stampa as saying.
"There is a
grave risk of a liquidity crisis soon in the entire eurozone, including
both sovereign states and banks," Guerrieri said.
"Italy and Spain need the necessary time to carry out reforms," he added.
Italy's
1.9-trillion euro ($2.5-trillion) public debt and low growth rate have
spooked the markets in recent weeks, prompting concern that it could
have to seek a bailout like fellow eurozone members Greece, Ireland and
Portugal.
Monti, an economics professor and former top EU
commissioner who was installed on November 16 after a wave of market
panic ousted Berlusconi, is under intense pressure to move quickly to
implement long-delayed reforms.
Italian news reports said that a
package of budget measures, which would still have to go before
parliament for final approval, would be approved at a cabinet meeting on
December 5 ahead of an EU summit on December 9.
The reports said
the measures could include the re-introduction of a tax on first home
buyers, as well as a one-off tax on property worth over a million euros,
a reform to increase the pension age and infrastructure projects.
The
EU's Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn during a visit to Rome on
Friday called for an "ambitious timetable" for reforms, warning that
Italy's high borrowing costs risked impacting the country's economic
growth prospects.