Spain sends senior official to US amid crisis

[May 31, 2012]  MADRID (AP) -- Spain's deputy prime minister is heading to Washington to discuss the country's economic crisis with the U.S. treasury secretary and the head of the IMF.

The government says Soraya Saenz de Santamaria is making the trip as yields on Spanish bonds remain at dangerously high levels amid worries over Spain's public finances and its troubled banking sector. The ten-year bond opened Thursday with a yield at 6.61 percent, down 2 basis points from a day earlier.

She will confer with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde.

Investors gave Spain a beating on Wednesday after a reported plan to finance a (EURO)19 billion ($23.63 billion) bank bailout by using government debt to get cash from the European Central Bank was rejected by that central lender.

[Associated Press]

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