site.news_by_theme eurozone

Senior French ministers warned Monday against picking a fight with Germany after the ruling Socialists accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of being "selfish" in her drive for eurozone austerity.

Eurozone and EU finance ministers meet in Dublin from Friday to finalise the Cyprus bailout and consider extending debt repayment dates for Portugal and Ireland.

The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday the region's emerging economies would pick up this year but warned that the recovery remained fragile due to the eurozone crisis and tensions in Asia.

Italy remained in political limbo on Friday after talks to break a deadlock created by inconclusive polls ended with no solution in sight.

Poles will have to okay eurozone entry in a referendum, a senior minister said Wednesday, echoing the prime minister's recent endorsement of a public vote on joining the unpopular currency union.

Cypriots will finally get access to their bank accounts later on Thursday after a nearly two-week lockdown, but under tight restrictions unprecedented in the eurozone.

Cyprus reversed course and decided to keep its banks shut as world markets took fright at the implications for the eurozone of the island's 10-billion-euro bailout deal with international creditors.

Angry Russian residents of Cyprus are talking of giving up on the Mediterranean island over a eurozone bailout deal which they say unfairly targets their money.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades' office said he "fully respects" the decision and that he had had a "constructive" phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, amid reports Cyprus was seeking alternative financing.

The eurozone has told debt-hit Cyprus to revise a controversial levy on bank deposits to allow small savers to escape the tax, part of a larger bailout deal, amid a public outcry and fears of a bank run.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will on Monday attempt to persuade lawmakers to back an EU bailout deal that slaps a levy on bank savings, amid fears of a run on accounts if he fails.

Eurozone finance ministers approved early Saturday plans to give bailed-out Ireland and Portugal more time to pay back some of their massive rescue loans.

Data published on Monday confirmed recession in the eurozone's weakest economies last year, breathing new life into a heated debate on whether aggressive austerity measures may come at the cost of economic growth.

Eurozone finance ministers meet Monday against the backdrop of a weak economy and increased political uncertainty after inconclusive polls in Italy, the group's third largest economy.

Irish lawmakers voted through emergency legislation to liquidate the former Anglo Irish bank early Thursday, as part of a deal to ease the eurozone country's massive debt burden.

The loosening of liquidity rules due to come into effect on banks raises hopes among some analysts to a recovery of lending the eurozone.

Spain defied the markets by averting a sovereign bailout this year but high interest rates could yet force Madrid to its knees as the nation confronts a 207-billion-euro ($274 billion) financing headache in 2013.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans that the economy, Europe's biggest, would experience a harder time next year than in 2012 and cautioned too that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over.

European governments argued through the night in a bid to agree a deal on tightening the oversight of eurozone bank, hours before leaders stage on Thursday their final summit of a gruelling third year in debt-crisis mode.

The European Union agreed early Thursday to create a bank supervisor to oversee lenders across the eurozone, following marathon talks which ended hours before the year's final EU summit.
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