Soros: Germany has 3 months to stem euro

TRENTO: Germany and its central bank are unlikely to lead the way out of the eurozone debt crisis within three months time, after which it will be too late, US billionaire George Soros said.

Speaking at an economic conference here on Saturday, Soros said the euro crisis which he defined as a sovereign debt crisis and a banking crisis closely interlinked threatened to destroy the European Union and plunge it into a lost decade like Latin America in the 1980s.

“A similar fate now awaits Europe. That is the responsibility that germany and other creditor countries need to acknowledge. But there is no sign of this happening,” Soros said.

Soros said he expected Greek elections in June to produce a government willing to stick by the current bailout agreements, but which would find it impossible to do so. “The Greek crisis is liable to come to a climax in the fall. By that time the German economy will also be weakening so that Chancellor (Angela) Merkel will find it even more difficult than today to persuade the German public to accept any additional European responsibilities. That’s what creates a three-month window.”

Soros said that all the “blame and burden” of adjusting the euro area’s imbalances was falling on weaker peripheral countries, but the bloc’s core bore an ever greater responsibility for the crisis.— Bloomberg