Belgium falls victim to euro crisis

Interest rates on Belgian government bonds have risen to 4.5 percent in the past 12 months. The country's creditworthiness is dropping, warns the business paper De Tijd: "In past weeks our country has undoubtedly lost ground against Germany and the Netherlands and we seem to be sinking to the level of Spain and Italy. ... It is perhaps not justifiable that Belgium be downgraded to the same level as Italy and Spain, but it is understandable. After all we have a vast state debt and the country has been without government for over a year. And on top of that we seem to be unable to do much to free ourselves of this unfortunate situation. We cannot magic the debt away. And even if we could get a fully-fledged government swiftly in place, it would not be enough to convince the financial markets that we have erased all our problems. Only Europe can save Belgium."

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