National
Spain left out of the global summit on the world economy in Washington
By h.b. - Oct 23, 2008 - 6:41 AM
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Despite the protestations from the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the late support of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, Spain has not been invited to the world summit on the economic crisis to be held in the United States next month.
The White House has announced that the G20 countries are invited, and spokesman Tony Fratto explained that there was no decision to exclude Spain, and that the countries opinions will be welcomed through other leaders who will be present or through the European Commission.
Spain is not part of the G20 which was created in 1999 in answer to the financial crisis at the end of the 90’s and included the emerging countries.
Zapatero continues to protest and insist that Spain, as the world’s eighth largest economy, should be present.
Meanwhile, The IBEX Spanish stock market lost 8.16% yesterday, the second largest haul in history, in what traders said were falls due to pessimism about the state of the economy. Poor quarterly results from large United States companies did nothing to help the fears of a global recession.
The market was also affected by the decision in Argentina to nationalise private pensions companies. Telefónica, Repsol, BBVA and Santander were the big losers.