MADRID —
Spain on Monday called for the European Central Bank to fight financial-market pressures on the eurozone, and Italy said more must be done to shore up the bloc after the Greek election results failed to ease the strain on both countries.
The cost of borrowing rose for the two big eurozone economies under fire for poor finances, widening the gap between what they would have to pay and what Germany pays.
The yield on Spain’s 10-year bond went above the 7 percent that is widely viewed as unaffordable. Italy’s was just above 6 percent.
Spanish Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro told the Senate during a budget hearing that doubts were lingering about the future of the eurozone.
“The ECB must respond firmly, with reliability, to these market pressures that are still trying to derail the joint euro project,” he said.
Within a few hours of Sunday’s Greek election results, financial markets were reacting as if nothing had changed.
“We can see that the markets are not convinced,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a G20 meeting in Mexico, according to Italian news agency ANSA. “We must draw up a definitive and clear road map with concrete actions that make the euro more credible.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, like Montoro on Monday, has repeatedly called for the ECB to act to defend the eurozone, implicitly wanting it to resume a massive bond-buying program that held down yields of government debt in recent months.
The ECB is reluctant to fire up the program again.
Monday’s market response underlined the problem facing the eurozone: Short-term improvements in the climate do not get away from the fact that finances are perilously tight in the middle of an economic downturn.
