Spain borrowing rate hits bailout danger zone

MADRID - The Associated Press

Traders stand in front of electronic boards at the stock exchange in Madrid July 6, 2012. REUTERS photo

Spain’s borrowing costs on its benchmark 10-year bond hit 7 percent as finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro gather in Brussels to discuss terms of a rescue package for the country’s banks.
 
The interest rate on the country’s rose 0.13 percent Monday morning to a level that market-watchers consider is unaffordable for a country to raise money on the bond markets in the long term.
 
Spanish officials have said that the finance ministers’ meeting could decide how much money the country’s stricken banks need from a lifeline of up to 100 billion euros. Investors fear a full-blown bailout of Spanish public finances would be too large to handle. The country’s economy is the eurozone’s fourth-largest and is larger than Portugal, Ireland and Greece combined.