Mario Draghi urges eurozone leaders to take “courageous leap” to economic integration if euro is to survive [Telegraph]
May 24, 2012 Leave a comment
The head of the eurozone’s central bank urged the region’s leaders to take a “courageous leap” to safeguard the future of the single currency as clear divisions continued and a Greek exit remained in focus.
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, warned that governments must take urgent action towards greater economic integration if the euro is to survive.
“We are living a crucial moment in the history of the EU. We have reached a point in which the process of European integration needs a courageous leap of political imagination in order to survive,” he said during a speech in Rome.
He made the comments following an underwhelming European Union summit in Brussels, where leaders failed to make progress on Greece or reach an agreed position on the controversial subject of eurobonds.
Economists at Citigroup said the most likely date for a Greek exit was January 1 2013, assuming that by then it will have run out of money following a failure to elect a government on June 17 that is willing to stick to austerity.
Citi analysts said the Greek currency would immediately plunge 60pc against the euro.
