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Europe Weighs Using Bailout Fund Bazooka in Virus Crisis

  • European Stability Mechanism has $458 billion unused firepower
  • EU liquidity guarantees to companies have reached 10% of GDP
Klaus Regling

Klaus Regling

Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg
Updated on

The euro area’s gigantic bailout fund is exploring how it can use its reserves to cushion the impact of a virus-induced recession, in a move that could help reassure markets after a spike in borrowing costs for the region’s most vulnerable economies.

Klaus Regling, the head of the European Stability Mechanism, said Monday it has an unused lending capacity of 410 billion euros ($458 billion).