WASHINGTON — Financial chiefs from the Group of Seven nations pressed Europe on Tuesday in a teleconference to act more aggressively to tame the continent’s escalating debt crisis, expecting eurozone leaders to bolster their banking system in the coming weeks.
Officials in the U.S. and some other G7 countries are worried that European leaders are not acting quickly or boldly enough to fix a crisis that threatens to send the region into a severe recession, hurting other economies around the world.
A primary focus of the call was Spain, where the government is struggling to recapitalize banks that are saddled with billions of euros’ worth of bad real-estate loans.
Although Spain is not a member of the G7 — which includes the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — Spanish officials participated in the call.
Spain’s budget minister, Cristobal Montoro, on Tuesday said its eurozone partners need to act faster to help support its enfeebled banks. He said the Spanish government has effectively lost access to capital markets because of rising borrowing costs.
Japan’s finance minister, Jun Azumi, said the European officials on the call “said they will handle the issues, including Spain’s debt problems, in a responsible manner, and I trust them.”
But he remained vague on whether European officials pledged any new measures, saying, “I said I want them to take detailed steps in a successive fashion to make not only us but also the market feel safe.”
