Euro summit: something to kill time with while waiting for the fate of the world to be decided
Wonder what he’s thinking? Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos arrives for his first EU summit.
IN the next 24 hours, while the leaders of the EU, have dinner and decide the fate of the global economy and the coming epoch in history. (Hyperbole always precedes reality.) You could do worse than peruse Euromoney Country Risk published by Euromoney magazine.
What caught my eye is today's lead ECR article which contains a chart showing that despite Standard & Poor's putting the 6 euro zone countries with AAA ratings on downgrade watch, it's the UK that has experts worried.
Andrew Mortimer , ECR editor, writes: "Despite the deteriorating outlook for the euro zone's triple-A sovereigns, all six countries retain a higher country risk score than the UK. The UK receives lower scores than its euro zone counterparts across a range of political, economic and structural criteria. Experts also regard the UK’s banking sector to be riskier than those of any of the euro zone's six triple-A sovereigns."
Another thing to kill time with while waiting: wondering what effect today's ECB cut of interest rates will do to help the struggling euro zone economies grow.