Reuters/Berlin/Rome
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought yesterday to quash talk of an imminent Greek default as the US voiced concern at the eurozone’s inability to stem its debt crisis.Market confidence in the 17-nation currency area suffered another blow when Italy had to pay the highest yield since it joined the euro in 1999 to sell 5-year bonds. Merkel said in radio interview that Europe was doing everything in its power to avoid a Greek default and urged politicians in her own coalition to weigh their words carefully to avoid creating turmoil on financial markets.Asked whether a Greek default would doom the euro, she answered: “We are using all the tools we have to prevent this. We need to avoid all disorderly processes with regards to the euro.”Calling Europe’s challenge “historic”, Merkel added that everything must be done to keep the eurozone intact “because we would see domino effects very quickly”.Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy conferred by telephone on the crisis on Monday, a senior French government source said.US President Barack Obama told Spanish journalists in a group interview published yesterday that eurozone leaders needed to show markets they were taking responsibility for the debt crisis. Weakness in the global economy would persist so long as it is not resolved, he said.In a measure of growing alarm in Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will take the unprecedented step of attending a meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland on Friday. It will be his second trip to Europe in a week after he met his main EU counterparts at a G7 meeting last weekend.Obama said that while Greece is the immediate concern, an even bigger problem is what may happen should markets keep attacking the larger economies of Spain and Italy.“In the end the big countries in Europe, the leaders in Europe must meet and take a decision on how to co-ordinate monetary integration with more effective co-ordinated fiscal policy,” the news agency EFE quoted him as saying.Markets have already priced in the near certainty of a Greek debt default. Credit default swap prices suggest a 90% probability of default in the next five years, according to CDS pricing data provider Markit.Greek TV said Prime Minister George Papandreou will hold a conference call with Merkel and Sarkozy tosday. International inspectors are due to return to Athens to review deficit-cutting steps before deciding on the next tranche of aid.Greece has said it only has a few weeks’ cash and needs the €8bn tranche in October to pay salaries and pensions.Pressure on Italy mounted yesterday at a bond auction that showed the limits of European Central Bank efforts to hold down Rome’s borrowing costs by buying government bonds in return for austerity measures to cut its budget deficit.The five-year bond yield hit a euro lifetime high of 5.6% despite ECB purchases in the secondary market that led to the resignation of the central bank’s German chief economist, Juergen Stark, last Friday.Hopes that China might step in as a saviour to buy Italian bonds, after an Italian request and recent talks, failed to provide much support for the auction.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing had confidence in Europe’s ability to handle its debts, but sought assurances that Europe would ensure the safety of its investments in the region.Chinese leaders have repeatedly offered verbal support to Greece, Portugal and Spain but encouraging words have not so far been matched by spectacular action.Beijing has continued to buy European debt this year but traders say the volume has been modest and mostly in high-grade paper rather than bonds of the weaker peripheral countries.Markets have been unsettled by growing talk among German politicians about the likelihood of a Greek default and a possible suspension of Greece from the single currency area.Merkel said the eurozone would only have a procedure for an orderly default in place from 2013, when a permanent crisis resolution mechanism is due to come into effect.“In a currency union with 17 members, we can only have a stable euro if we prevent disorderly processes. Therefore it is our top priority to avoid an uncontrolled default, because it would hit not only Greece. The danger would be very high that it would hit many other countries,” she said.Obama’s comments suggested that Washington is trying to nudge European governments towards closer fiscal union or a bigger bailout fund to recapitalise teetering banks but European politics, especially in Germany, make that difficult.Merkel suggested the way forward should involve sharper punishment for states that violate the bloc’s budget discipline rules, which have been repeatedly breached in the last decade, including by central euro zone powers Germany and France.“Until now, for example, if countries violate the Stability and Growth Pact they cannot be taken before the European Court of Justice,” she said.