The managing director of the International Monetary Fund has called on European leaders to devise a more comprehensive solution to the eurozone debt crisis, saying the response so far had been piecemeal and not adequate.
Speaking a day after a meeting behind closed doors with European Union finance ministers in Brussels, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he did not believe the euro was at risk. But he said there must be a more “comprehensive, integrated” plan to shore up the region’s finances and calm investor fears.
He was speaking just before Ireland’s coalition government presented the country’s harshest ever budget, hoping that a razor-thin majority would be enough to win parliamentary approval on Tuesday night for €6bn in spending cuts needed to access emergency aid from the EU and IMF.