Euro boosted by Rome mini-summit pledge to boost economic growth

The euro rallied late Friday after leaders of the eurozone’s four biggest economies agreed to pump 130 billion euros into the bloc’s economy. French President François Hollande’s push for growth was accepted by Germany’s Angela Merkel after winning support from Italy’s Mario Monti and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy.

REUTERS/Lionel Bonaventure

Having finally convinced Merkel to accept the cash injection, Hollande declared that he wants "budgetary rigour" but not "austerity".

And he revived his call for eurobonds, which Merkel has opposed.

“I believe eurobonds must be a prospect and not in 10 years,” he said.

Merkel hailed the commitment to invest one per cent of European GDP, mainly coming from unspent money in already existing programmes, as “an important signal”.

And she called for more European integration.

“The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe,” she said.

After warning before the mini-summit that failure to act could mean countries falling prey to speculators, Monti claimed that the single currency is “irreversible”.

“The euro is here to stay and we all mean it,” he said.

The four also supported a tax on financial transactions. But finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg failed to agree on the measure, meaning that it is unlikely to be European Union-wide measure.