“Many central and eastern European countries simply don’t have either the financial strength or the technical expertise to bail out banks,” said Lars Christensen, a senior emerging-markets analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “It’s like an Iceland look-a-like contest and there are a number of candidates looking very fragile at the moment.”

As rumours abound [...]

Serbia has also decided to ask the International Monetary Fund for additional support, according to a stament from senior government officials last Monday cited in Reuters.
“We are certainly not in a group of emergency cases, such as Hungary,” a senior official who asked not to be named told Reuters. “But we need the agreement for [...]

There are essentially two basic critiques of the EU’s institutions; one is the classic, Monnet/Schuman house ideology view that its problems are simply because there isn’t enough of it. If it was more like the US federal government, it would work better; and, as we designed it to get more like that, it must be [...]

Ukraine has joined the growing list of Eastern European countries who have now entered some form of “consultation” process with the IMF and today formally requested “systemic support” and “active cooperation” from the fund. The government will meet with IMF representatives in the “coming days,” according to a statement from First Deputy [...]

Well, the Icelandic authorities seem to have bitten the bullet, and after some coming and going agreed to accept assistance from the IMF. An IMF mission is on the island preparing a plan which will then be put to the Icelandic government (protocols here are important). Under negotiation are the terms of any possible loan. [...]

To be fair, Paul Krugman was a pretty darn good economist even before he took up blogging…

Well, Europe’s leaders have finally bitten the bullet. Faced with what IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn warned could turn into a global financial meltdown, our leaders have risen to the challenge, at least to a certain extent. The details of what has been agreed continue to remain vague, but obviously I think it is a [...]

Well, these are indeed troubled times. According to the latest news to come off the Reuters wires the International Monetary Fund has announced its readiness to offer financial and technical help to Hungary, effectively stepping in and providing support for an EU member state in difficulty at a time when the EU institutional and [...]

So to avoid the awkwardness of a Eurozone summit in Paris excluding Europe’s biggest financial centre, Gordon Brown went to Paris before the meeting and it sounded like he and Nicolas Sarkozy were on the same wavelength about how bailouts should work.  One section of the Elysée summit declaration (version fr) says

[...]

The medium-term outlook (for Ukraine) is sensitive to both external developments and policy responses. A benign external environment, featuring even higher steel prices and additional FDI, could produce growth in excess of 7 percent, but inflation could prove hard to control under a peg. Under an adverse external outlook, by contrast, the peg could lead [...]