French Finance Minister Moscovici welcomes Spanish bank bailout

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici has hailed a eurozone bailout for Spain's troubled banks that was agreed after emergency talks on Saturday saying it should help restore confidence and promote the return of growth in Europe. 

Reuters/Julien Muguet

"It's a good agreement, it is a very strong signal of solidarity," Moscovici told the French news agency adding that he had insisted the conditions of the rescue were strictly confined to the banking sector and did not include general austerity measures.

"The entire Eurogroup was very cooperative," he said of the conference among eurozone finance ministers that agreed on a lifeline of up to 100 billion euros for Spain's banks.

"We did the analysis that showed Spain has undertaken structural reforms which will bear fruit and that much of the banking sector was healthy,” he added.

The French minister stressed that the amount of funding which Spain would be able to draw on was significantly greater than estimates of the requirements of Spanish banks, notably figures from the IMF which on Friday said the banks needed at least 40 billion euros in new capital.