Europe cracks whip on bloated deficits
Europe cracked the whip on bloated national deficits on Wednesday, but flagging hopes of economic recovery sharpened divisions on ending governments' economic life support measures. Nine more European Union countries -- taking the total to 20 out of 27 -- were named and shamed for breaching fixed deficit limits. But worse-than-expected data on putative growth simultaneously lent support to those, led by Britain, who oppose pulling the plug on trillions of euros of pump-priming by a 2011 target date. Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Portugal became the latest to break commitments to hold deficits to within three percent of gross domestic product.
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