Cyprus joins Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in seeking EU rescue funds
And then there were five: Cyprus seeks EU aid | Television New Zealand | News, Sport, Weather, TV ONE, TV2 | TVNZ | BUSINESS News
And then there were five: Cyprus seeks EU aid | Television New Zealand | News, Sport, Weather, TV ONE, TV2 | TVNZ | BUSINESS News
A fifth euro-zone country turned to Brussels for emergency funding when Cyprus announced it was seeking a lifeline for its banks and its budget.
The announcement came hours after Spain submitted a formal request to bail out its banks.
Global share prices and the euro slid as investors bet that European leaders - due to meet this week for the 20th time since the currency zone's debt crisis hit Greece in 2010 - would fail to come up with radical measures to back up weak countries.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel dashed any hope that Berlin would allow joint bonds issued by the euro zone or other measures sought by partners.
Cyprus joins Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in seeking EU rescue funds, meaning more than a quarter of the 17 euro zone members are now in the bloc's emergency ward. Italy's funding costs have soared too, which means it could be next.
Spain formally submitted its request for up to 100 billion euros (NZ158.5 billion) of funds to bail out its banks, agreed on June 9.
Moody's Investors Service cut the ratings of 28 out of 33 rated Spanish banks by one to four notches in a decision announced late Monday afternoon in New York. Those downgrades followed a cut of Spain's sovereign rating to just above junk status earlier this month.
Tiny Cyprus has just four days to raise at least 1.8 billion euros - equivalent to about 10% of its domestic output - to meet a deadline set by European regulators to recapitalise Cyprus Popular Bank, its second largest lender which saw its balance sheet hurt by bad Greek debt.