La Catalonia asks Madrid for help. After weeks of uncertainty, it is now official: the Spanish region - which alone accounts for a fifth of the Iberian country's GDP - announced today that will draw on the liquidity of the new state fund for just over 5 billion euros. Resources that will be used to cover financing costs and debts due this year. "We will not accept political conditions for the aid" underlined a spokeswoman for the Catalan economic manager.
The Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy, engaged in a meeting with the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, confirmed that the Region does not currently have sufficient funds to support the payments.
The news accelerated to the downside the Madrid Stock Exchange, which in mid-afternoon loses more than one percentage point.
Among Spain's 17 autonomous regions, Valencia and Murcia had already admitted that they had to resort to state support through the liquidity fund, an instrument whose establishment Madrid announced last July but which has not yet become operational.
In all, it is expected that six Spanish regions will end up requesting aid from the fund.
