The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has said the EU would support the Irish Republic "if needed", after the yield on government bonds hit record highs.

This reflects growing fear among investors about the Irish government's ability to cut its debt levels.

Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan welcomed Mr Barroso's comments.

Earlier this week, the EU's economy commissioner said he had not discussed possible financial help with the Irish.

Olli Rehn said confidence in the Irish economy would be restored once the country published a four-year plan to cut debts.

However, the yield on government bonds has continued to rise.

On Thursday, Irish 10-year government bond yields jumped to 8.929%, the highest level since the creation of the euro in 1999.

And Italy and Spain were among the countries seeing their cost of borrowing jump as fears grew of contagion in Europe.
Record highs

Mr Barroso said: "In case of need, the EU is ready to support Ireland. We are monitoring the situation closely, but we support the efforts of the Irish authorities [to reduce the budget deficit]."

Mr Lenihan said the comments highlighted the "solidarity" within the EU.

The Irish government has already imposed stringent cuts on civil service pay and state spending, and plans to unveil details of a further 15bn euros ($21bn; £13bn) of cuts on 7 December.

They will include a further 6bn euros of cuts next year, designed to bring the budget deficit down to between 9.5-9.75% fo GDP.

The government's deficit surged during the recession after it was forced to bail out the country's banking system.

The recent rise in the interest rate Irish government bonds pay out, which hit record highs this week, suggest investors doubt whether these cuts will be enough to put the Irish economy, which suffered one the deepest recessions in the eurozone, back on track.

"This makes it increasingly likely that the Irish Republic will have to be bailed out by the EU and the International Monetary Fund, just as Greece was earlier this year," said the BBC's Europe correspondent Jonty Bloom.

A number of European governments have announced wide-ranging spending cuts to reduce debt levels, most notably Greece, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11735040

I wonder if Bono will help

Greece is close to default, Portugal maybe in 18 months, Spain a little latter. And the UK? I doubt that we will need EU or IMF support but if we do it will have been entirely self inflicted.

No Bono will not be helping. He will be too worried about his millions.

More news

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/8130 ... escue.html

They may try and squash expectations but the problem is that Ireland has no scope for manoeuvre and will be forced to default. It has already shrunk its economy by 19% and its debt burden is the same as before the crisis. The problem is once everyone comes to realise that austerity measures ultimately lead to default then the issue will be who will default next? Once the usual suspects have defaulted and the correspondent banks have had to take further losses and their capital position is exposed as weak then the next stage of the crisis will happen. Look at UK, German and Austrian banks for the next to collapse, taking their governments down with them.

Well it looks like Ireland will announce a bail out or aid package from the EU, before Monday. So bond vigilantes will turn their attention to Portugal, next week. A bail out for Portugal seems likely within a couple of months.

Abandon ship, abandon ship!!!

This is not a drill. This is a drill: