ATHENS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Greece should receive a vital lifeline next month in order to avoid bankruptcy, its international lenders said on Tuesday, buying time in a debt crisis that Europe’s top central banker labelled “systemic”.

After a weeks-long review of the country’s finances, inspectors from the European Union, IMF and European Central Bank said an 8 billion euros loan tranche should be paid in early November. But they warned Greece had made only patchy progress in meeting the terms of a bailout agreed in May last year.

FRANKFURT/BRATISLAVA, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Europe’s top
financial watchdog warned on Tuesday that the euro zone’s
sovereign debt crisis has become systemic and threatens global
economic stability unless decisive action is taken urgently.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet issued
the dramatic warning as chairman of the European Systemic Risk
Board, created to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis,
amid growing fears that Greece will default on its massive debt.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone sovereign debt crisis has become systemic and risks to the economy are increasing rapidly with Europe’s banks in the danger zone, European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) Chairman Jean-Claude Trichet said on Tuesday.

Trichet, who heads the European Central Bank as well as the continent’s super-watchdog on financial stability, said the euro zone’s EFSF bailout fund should be made as flexible as possible, but without involving the ECB in leveraging it.

FRANKFURT, Sept 26 (Reuters) – European Central Bank
officials encouraged hopes of a cut in interest rates to aid
economic growth on Monday, although Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch
warned speculation of a sharp move next month was “wild”.

European stock markets surged on the idea that the bank
could slash its 1.5 percent main rate by a half-point on Oct. 6,
taking back rises it made earlier this year in a bid to dig the
European economy out of a deepening crisis.

FRANKFURT, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Two European Central Bank
policymakers gave differing views on the prospect of a cut in
interest rates on Monday as financial markets speculated a sharp
reduction could be in prospect to help stem a growing economic
crisis.

Governing Council member Yves Mersch said speculation that
the bank could cut rates by 50 basis points at its meeting at
the start of October were “wild”.

FRANKFURT/OTTAWA, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Seven world leaders
demanded Europe take more decisive action against its debt
crisis and a European Central Bank study warned on Thursday that
the entire euro currency project was now in peril.

As ministers gathered in Washington for meetings of the
Group of 20 and International Monetary Fund, an open letter to
G20 president France from the leaders of Australia, Canada,
Indonesia, Britain, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea
stressed the threat of the euro zone crisis spreading worldwide.

FRANKFURT/OTTAWA (Reuters) – The euro currency project is in danger due to member states’ runaway spending and the resulting sovereign debt crisis, a European Central Bank study warned on Thursday amid mounting global calls on Europe to take more decisive action.

The study, perhaps the most strongly-worded warning about the future of the euro by a central banker, was a parting shot from ECB chief economist Juergen Stark, who resigned this month after opposing the bank’s policy of buying troubled countries’ bonds.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The whole euro currency project is in danger due to member states’ runaway spending and subsequent sovereign debt crises, a European Central Bank study co-authored by Executive Board member Juergen Stark said.

The study, perhaps the most strongly-worded warning about the future of the euro by a central banker, serves as Stark’s parting shot and weakened the currency, which extended falls against the dollar, dropping to a seven-month low of $1.3465.

WROCLAW, Poland/FRANKFURT, Sept 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner will discuss with European finance
ministers the possibility of leveraging the euro zone’s bailout
fund to make it more effective in fighting the debt crisis.

Geithner will hold talks with EU ministers in Poland on
Friday and will propose that the EFSF, the 440 billion euro fund
set up in May 2010, be used in a similar way to an emergency
fund created by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve in 2008 to
handle the subprime crisis, sources said.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Major central banks around the world will cooperate to offer three-month U.S. dollar loans to commercial banks in order to prevent money markets from freezing up because of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

The European Central Bank said on Thursday it would hold three fixed-rate operations between October and December to offer banks as many dollars as they needed, in order to ease any funding crunch in the year-end period.