Euro ministers polish rescue fund deal

Euro zone finance ministers met on Monday to work out details of a deal agreed at the weekend by the bloc’s leaders to ease the sovereign debt crisis and preventing any new problems by beefing up their bailout fund.

Portugal is seen as the most vulnerable but finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos insisted again that Lisbon does not need a bailout: “It is not the case at this moment for Portugal, we have been able to go to the market and it is our intention to keep going to the market.”

There was positive market reaction to the deal – which includes lowering the interest rates charged on the bailout given to Greece – but not yet for Ireland, which the situation is made more complicated by a row over business taxation.

On Monday, the cost of borrowing fell for both Portugal and Greece, but analysts pointed out there is still a lot of work to be done before the measures can be formally approval at an EU summit later this month.

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