Defiant Silvio Berlusconi refuses IMF bailout and insists he will not resign despite mounting Italian debt crisis

[WestVirginiaRebel]

UK Daily Mail:

Defiant Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi today refused an offer of financial support from the IMF - and insisted he would not resign.

The 75-year-old leader insisted he did not think his coalition government would collapse as they struggle to deal with their debt crisis.

With its colossal £1.6trillion debt, Italy is now at the eye of the storm and is paying 6.43 per cent to borrow money for ten years.

That figure is perilously close to the 7 per cent level where Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to seek a bailout.

But rejecting IMF help the Italian leader said at the end of the two-day G20 summit in Cannes: 'We don't believe this type of intervention is necessary.'

Italy has built up debts 120 per cent bigger than national income. Its fate is crucial to the eurozone, because its economy - the third-largest in the currency union - would be too expensive to bail out like Greece, Portugal and Ireland have been.
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Europe's train wreck continues.