EU Leaders Believe Worst Is Over

European leaders declaring they’ve gained the upper hand in the three-year-old debt crisis are sharpening efforts to channel a rebound in financial markets to an economic recovery to chip away at soaring unemployment.

Even as euro-area chiefs call for more time to lock in a bailout package for Cyprus and elections loom next month in Italy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Jan. 11 that the single currency is “over the worst of the crisis.”

“Financial markets are starting to appear normal again,” Erik Nielsen, chief global economist at UniCredit SpA (UCG), wrote in a note to clients yesterday. He referred to European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s Jan. 10 comments forecasting that the euro-area economy will climb out of recession this year.

Draghi’s six-month-old pledge to do whatever it takes to deliver the 17-member currency out of the crisis has been credited for declining yields and an easing in market turmoil. That’s given leaders more room to grapple with issues such as unemployment in Europe, which climbed to a record 11.8 percent in November, with every other Spanish youth out of work.

Spain’s 10-year bonds fell as a rally that pushed yields to as low as 4.84 percent Jan. 11 from a July peak of 7.62 percent stalled. Yields rose 8 basis points to 4.97 percent at 11:11 a.m. in Madrid. The euro climbed 0.3 percent to $1.339 after reaching $1.3404, an 11-month high.

Bloomberg

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