U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner attended a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Poland on Friday, where he urged officials to engage in more unified policy measures given the tension that has developed in recent months among various nations.
At the meeting, Geithner contended that Europe gives off an image of “ongoing conflict” between national governments and the European Central Bank (ECB), which has mitigated efforts to properly deal with the sovereign debt crisis.
Investors were looking for indications from the meeting that euro zone officials are prepared to take measures to ensure the effective implementation of the July 21 agreement to increase the power of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and provide additional bailout funds to Greece.
However, Bloomberg reported this afternoon that “European finance ministers ruled out efforts to prop up the faltering economy and gave no indication of providing aid for lenders to go along with yesterday’s liquidity lifeline from the European Central Bank…Clashing with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, finance chiefs from the euro region said the 18-month debt crisis leaves no room for tax cuts or extra spending to spur an economy on the brink of stagnation.”
Following the meeting, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters that “We have slightly different views from time to time with our U.S. colleagues when it comes to fiscal stimulus packages. We don’t see any room for maneuver in the euro area which could allow us to launch new fiscal stimulus packages. That will not be possible.”
Juncker also said there was no discussion with Geithner of increasing the size of the EFSF. ”We are not discussing the increase or the expansion of the EFSF with a non-member of the euro area.”
The contentious nature of Juncker’s comments, coupled with the lack of coordinated policy action from the meeting, helped boost the gold price and pressure the euro currency this afternoon. COMEX gold futures climbed $34.00 to $1,815.40 per ounce, while the euro fell 0.8% to 1.3770 against the U.S. dollar.
Klondex Mines Delivers Updated Resource for Fire Creek
* The cut-off grade also resulted in an inferred resource estimate of 458,084 ounces of gold.
* During 2009 and 2010, 14 holes were drilled to in-fill known mineralization, eight holes were drilled to extend the known zones along strike and 13 holes were drilled to test new geophysical targets.
