EU Finance Chiefs Rebuff U.S. Calls to Boost Economic Stimulus

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- European finance ministers rejected calls from the U.S. to do more to battle the economic crisis, saying stimulus plans already in place need time to work.

“Recent American appeals insisting that the Europeans make an additional budgetary effort to combat the effects of the crisis were not to our liking,” Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday after leading a meeting of euro-area finance chiefs in Brussels. “We want to see what the effect of the recovery package is going to be.”

Euro-area finance ministers met five days before those from the Group of 20 convene near London for talks on fighting the financial crisis. That conference may witness more efforts by the U.S., as well as China, to encourage other nations to bolster government spending in a bid to end the global recession.

The International Monetary Fund said in a report last week that only the U.S., Saudi Arabia, China, Spain and Australia are on track to meet the IMF’s target of introducing fiscal stimulus equivalent to 2 percent of gross domestic product this year. Germany’s efforts currently amount to 1.5 percent of GDP, which is double what France has passed, according to the IMF.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aGHhkwbUu1SU&refer=economy

 

....the mouse that roared. When Luxembourg becomes demonstrative, that may actually be a "good" buy-signal for the S&P-500.

 

European Union finance ministers on Tuesday will ask countries with large financial reserves to help double International Monetary Fund resources to $500 billion, and will seek a stronger IMF role in economic surveillance, according to a draft statement.

Nice way to circumvent Maastricht Criteria

 

Actually, Juncker, in spite of being a Prime Minister of the relatively insignificant Luxembourg, is quite an influential ECB figure.

 

Is it point the finger time already?