March 11, 2011

Eastern Europe Uses Greek Crisis as Cover to Delay Move to Euro Discipline

The euro-region debt crisis is giving Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary an excuse to delay getting their economies in shape to join the single currency.

The European Union’s largest eastern members are slowing euro preparations as western governments struggle to end a debt crisis that nearly ripped the currency apart in May. Without a fixed timetable, buying the bonds of these countries is no longer a one-way bet on falling yields, said investors including Jean-Dominique Butikofer, who helps oversee about $1 billion of emerging-market debt at Union Bancaire Privee in Zurich.