IMF to issue report card on Spain's economy Friday

26 Jul, 2012

The IMF executive board discussed Spain's Article IV, an annual fund report on member economies, Wednesday, IMF spokesman David Hawley said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

"We plan to publish the documents tomorrow," he said, adding the release was scheduled for 1530 GMT.

Spain, whose borrowing costs have soared to record euro-era levels as its economy reels amid the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, has announced important policy measures, the spokesman said.

Spain's authorities have been taking "strong, wide-ranging reform measures," but, he said, "implementation is key."

"Spain's prospects will also be helped by further progress on the European level."

Economists increasingly agree that a previous eurozone bailout of up to 100 billion euros ($123 billion) agreed for Spain's banks will be insufficient to get the country through the crisis brought on by a collapse of its real estate boom in 2008.

Commenting on European Central Bank president Mario Draghi's pledge Thursday to do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro," Hawley said it was "a welcome reiteration of the ECB's well-known commitment to do what is necessary."

"But we continue to see the need for further monetary easing and nonconventional support."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012

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