Germany, France Push for Portugal Bailout – Euro Falls

Spiegel:  The euro fell to a four-month low against the dollar at $1.2860 on Monday following mounting concern that Portugal will become the next euro zone member to seek a bailout, after reports by SPIEGEL and the Reuters news agency said German and France were pushing the highly-indebted country to seek financial help.According to SPIEGEL, Germany and France want to urge Portugal to seek a bailout as soon as possible from the €750 billion ($968 billion) rescue fund set up last May by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The report in the latest edition of SPIEGEL published on Monday said experts from both governments did not think Portugal will be able to borrow funds on the capital markets much longer.

The fact that Portugal had to pay an hinterest rate of 3.69% for six-month bonds it issued last week was being seeing as an alarm signal in Berlin and Paris, SPIEGEL reported. Germany on the same day issued a 10-year bond for just 2.87 percent.  Read more at Spiegel……