Spain faces 'total emergency' as fear grips markets

clock • 1 min read

Spain is facing the gravest danger since the end of the Franco dictatorship as the country is frozen out of global capital markets and slides towards an epic showdown with Europe.

"We're in a situation of total emergency, the worst crisis we have ever lived through" said ex-premier Felipe Gonzalez, the country's elder statesman. The warning came as the yields on Spanish 10-year bonds spiked to 6.7%, pushing the "risk premium" over German Bunds to a post-euro high of 540 basis points, writes the Telegraph. The IBEX index of stocks in Madrid fell 2.6%, the lowest since the dotcom bust in 2003. Chaos over the €23.5bn rescue of crippled lender Bankia has led to the abrupt resignation of central bank governor Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, who testified to the s...

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