CAJ note: £25 billion is about $39 billion U.S.
David Cameron will come under pressure today to resist demands to contribute more than £25 billion to a new eurozone bail-out.
Tim Ross and Bruno Waterfield
The Telegraph [UK]
18 Dec 2011
European finance ministers will aim to agree a new €200 billion (£167.7 billion [$260.7 billion]) loan to the International Monetary Fund as part of a deal to save the single currency.
Three quarters of the money is expected to come from eurozone members, but Britain will also be asked to provide funds.
Figures suggest European Union officials expect British taxpayers to be the second largest contributor. The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised not to provide any extra funding for the IMF for the specific purpose of saving the euro and Britain is already liable for £12 billion [$18.65 billion] of loans and guarantees to Ireland, Greece and Portugal.
Earlier this month, EU countries set today as the deadline to raise up to €200 billion in new loans for the IMF to deal with the eurozone crisis.
Finance ministers will hold a conference call in an attempt to reach agreement on the war chest…
…Any suggestion that Britain will pay more towards the bailing out debt-ridden eurozone economies will cause anger among Tory Euro-sceptics, particularly if the eurozone nations do not pay their fair share.
Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, said: “George Osborne has spent 20 months going along with the bail-out and borrow consensus.
“It has cost this country billions of pounds in liabilities which dwarf all the austerity measures. He needs to call a halt now.”…
The complete article is at The Telegraph.
