BRUSSELS, Sept 16 (AFP): Leading central banks leapt into action yesterday to inject dollars into banks threatened by the eurozone's debt mountain as EU finance ministers gathered for key talks to resolve the crisis.
The damage caused by the eurozone's debt saga was laid bare by a European Commission economic forecast showing that growth in the 17-nation single currency area will nearly grind to a halt by the end of the year.
In Frankfurt, the European Central Bank, along with its US, Japanese, Swiss and British counterparts, announced they would act in concert to inject extra dollar liquidity into banks facing a shortage of the US currency.
The announcement sparked a European stock market rally, with bank shares rebounding after falling in recent days as their usual sources of dollars dried up on concerns they might be hit by a Greek debt default.
The ECB said the central banks will "conduct three US dollar liquidity- providing operations with a maturity of approximately three months covering the end of the year"-instead of the usual seven-day operations.
