Investors fret over details for Irish bailout

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STEVE CHIOTAKIS: Investor are voicing doubts about Ireland’s massive bailout. A lot of the skepticism is also about politics.

And, as Marketplace Europe Correspondent Stephen Beard reports, some of the problems stem from the fact that those rescue plans are fuzzy and flexible from the get-go.

STEPHEN BEARD: Investors were already fretting over the lack of detail about the Irish rescue package. We still don’t know exactly how much Ireland will borrow from its European partners. And how much from the IMF. We don’t know whether there are any strings attached. And now there’s an added — and perhaps fatal — uncertainty. The government in Dublin is falling apart and could face an election soon. Howard Wheeldon is an analyst with the BGC Partners.

HOWARD WHEELDON: Markets are quite obviously are perceiving that whatever deal is agreed with the current government and the IMF and the European Stability Fund that it may never see the light of day.

And piling more pressure on the beleaguered euro, there are fresh doubts about the Greek bailout. EU and IMF officials are in Athens today to assess whether Greece should get another slice of funding. The country has just admitted that its public debt is much worse than had been revealed.

In London this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.