Angela "Merkel is scaring the markets," says Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Comments on October 17 by the German Chancellor's spokesperson caused "a cold shower" effect "on those that think that the European Council meeting on October 23 will provide a decisive solution to the sovereign debt issue in the euro zone," the paper says. "The dream that all will be solved the next day will not come true," the spokesperson said. The German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is saying much the same thing: "a definitive solution during the European Summit is improbable".
These comments, which are in contradiction with the optimism expressed by Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at their last meeting, caused European stock markets to drop and widened the spread between German and French treasury bonds. The markets have understood "the signal sent by Germany," according to Il Sole, "it is maintaining the pressure so that the other countries don't relax efforts to consolidate their public finances".
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