Spain: no need for EU funds to help banks

Spain’s economy minister says the country’s banks do not need to be bolstered with European money, as suggested by France. Luis de Guindos spoke Monday as markets dipped on last week’s news that Spain’s 2011 budget deficit was higher than expected — an embarrassing second correction to the figure. Bond fell, pushing the yield on 10-year bonds up by 0.06 percentage points to 6.26 percent. The Ibex-35 stock index was down 0.5 percent. De Guindos said the increase in the 2011 deficit figure from 8.5 percent of GDP to 8.9 percent was due to overspending by four regions, which had not been “totally transparent” in providing figures initially. He said recently nationalized lender Bankia will need an injection of around (euro) 7 billion, but rejected the need for European rescue funds.