By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- European stock markets surged after Germany's finance minister announced the government would announce an 'unlimited' credit facility to help companies struggling with short-term cash flow problems due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Olaf Scholz told a press conference the facility would be administered by Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, a state-owned development bank that also played a large role in the government's stabilization programs 11 years ago.
The measure is the most radical announced so far by Berlin and reassured markets about Germany's willingness to relax its purse-strings as the European economy stares a potentially sharp recession in the face.
Elsewhere, the European Commission confirmed that it was ready to relax the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, acknowledging that the Covid-19 outbreak represented an event outside the control of governments and therefore met the requirement for allowing exception spending.
By 8:10 AM ET (1210 GMT), the yield on the German 10-year benchmark bond, which collapsed to record lows earlier this month, rebounded to -0.59%, its highest level since the end of February.
The German DAX index extended gains to be up 6.9%, while the Italian FTSE MIB, which had crumbled on Thursday amid fears of a lack of support for the eurozone country worst hit by the coronavirus, rose by 14.7%. Both indices were still short of Wednesday's closing levels, however.
The euro was at $1.1164, down 0.2% from Thursday's close.