WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saving Greece from a default would be better for the euro zone countries and ease the threat of similar developments in Spain and Italy, Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.
"It is better to save (Greece)," Kudrin told journalists at the sidelines of global policymakers' semi-annual meeting in Washington.
"Risks of the world economy would increase drastically and interest on Italy and Spain's debt would increase dramatically and it would be harder for them to service their debt. It's like at the front: breaking the front even narrowly already weakens the entire army and brings the enemy within," Kudrin said.
The European Union's top economic official, Olli Rehn, said as soon as the region's governments confirm new powers for their 440-billion-euro fund, known as the EFSF, attention will turn to how to get more impact from the existing money.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly, editing by Will Dunham)
