Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned on Wednesday that his country faces trouble financing itself as its borrowing costs shoot up.
“The risk premium has gone up a lot, and that means it is very difficult to get financing and it is very difficult to do so at a reasonable price,” Rajoy told lawmakers in a weekly parliamentary debate.
Spain’s difficulty to borrow underscores investors concerns about political turmoil in Greece that could end up in a Greek exit from the euro.
Greece is headed for the second parliamentary elections in less than a month as the latest round of talks on forming a new government failed over divisions on painful austerity measures.
Investors are also worried that Spain’s public debt might rise sharply after Rajoy said that the government may be forced to inject as much as 15 billion euros of public funds into its struggling commercial banks.
Spain has announced spending cuts of more than 11 billion dollars as well as tax increases to reduce the country’s deficit to avoid seeking a financial bailout like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, triggering incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.
PG/JR
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