FRANKFURT, Germany — All eyes are on Mario Draghi to see what the European Central Bank can deliver to help save the European single currency.
The
pressure is on Europe’s monetary authority and its president because the
other main rescue funds available to the 17 euro countries remedies
have limited firepower.
Here is a glance at what other assistance is available to the eurozone:
—The
eurozone governments have come up with €138 billion ($169.97 billion)
to bail out small countries — Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But
governments across the eurozone, their deficits swollen by the crisis,
are short of money for further bailouts.
—The current bailout
fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, has some €440 billion
in lending power, but most of that is already committed to bailouts for
Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
—The European Stability Mechanism —
the new permanent fund — would have some €500 billion, but has yet to
be ratified by eurozone member countries and will not come on line
before a Sept. 12 court decision in Germany at the earliest. And €100
billion of that is already committed to rescuing Spanish banks from
collapsing due to bad real estate loans.
