Europe, Country Bailout | featured news

The International Monetary Fund says it has not been asked by Spain for a bailout and has not begun preparing one.

Let Greece go: It's a possibility that's being considered more and more publicly in Europe. There have been two and a half years of bailouts, on top of broken promises by Greece to reform. The result: a fifth year of recession and, this week, political chaos. Voters on Sunday favored parties that either oppose the terms of the country's international bailout or want to renegotiate them. If it cannot get more rescue loans, Greece will go bankrupt and likely have to leave the eurozone, the currency union of 17 countries.

The leaders of Greece's once-dominant political parties made a last push on Friday to avert a new election, which a poll showed would give victory to a radical leftist and doom an EU bailout.

Greece’s next government may hold a trump card worth more than $510 billion if it heeds voters’ demands to renegotiate its bailout with the European Union. The nation owes about 400 billion euros ($517 billion) to private bondholders, public bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, and other creditors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About 252 billion euros of that’s due to official organizations that used their status to avoid the losses suffered by ordinary bondholders when Greece restructured its debt two months ago.

China is keen to contribute to a fund to bail out the euro zone, its trade minister said, underscoring the Asian powerhouse's growing interest in playing a bigger role in the global economy as its financial strength grows.

The euro zone may raise the combined lending power of its bailout funds to close to 700 billion euros from 500 billion in a trade-off between German opposition to committing more money and calming markets, euro zone officials said.

Greece has successfully pushed through a deal to lower its debt burden and avoid defaulting on its outstanding bonds in the near future.

Decision day for the Greek debt crisis is drawing near, and insiders are predicting that if things go awry it could cost the world economy $1 trillion.

Eurozone finance ministers sealed a deal Tuesday morning for a second bailout for Greece, including 130 billion euros or $173 billion in new financing.

Greece's cabinet agreed on Saturday to launch a debt swap for private creditors on March 8 with the aim of completing it by March 11, a government official said.