Ireland denies it needs EU bailout

Ireland says it is in talks with "international colleagues" over its budget crisis but denies asking for a Greek-style economic bailout. The Irish public deficit this year is set to be slightly more than 30 per cent of gross domestic product, 10 times the EU limit and more than three times the Greek deficit. 

Reuters

An Irish Department of Finance spokesman confirmed the country had not made an application for external support, but there were ongoing contacts at official levels with international colleagues in the light of current market conditions.

Speculation has reached fever pitch over the last few days over a possible rescue package for Ireland said to be about 70 billion dollars. On Monday, the euro and European stocks fell amid worries that Ireland's difficulties could spill over into the rest of the so-called PIGS economies - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

On Friday, the Irish 10-year bond yield or interest rate rose to 8,152 percent from 7.926 percent. Earlier in the week it had risen to 8,949 percent, the highest level since it joined in the creation of the European single currency in 1999.

Ireland is planning a budget on 7 December that will include six billion euros in spending cuts and tax rises, but there are fears this could further hit the country's growth.

Greece and Portugal will present their 2011 budgets this week and Spain is due to hold bond auctions on Tuesday and Thursday.