The IMF and Spain both denied Thursday any talks on a bailout loan program for Madrid, as Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria met the global lender's chief Christine Lagarde.
"There is no such plan. We have not received any request to that effect and we are not doing any work in relation to any financial support," Lagarde said after the two met.
And Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos called the "rumors" that Madrid was discussing a rescue loan program with the International Monetary Fund "senseless."
"My desire is to not come out and deny these rumours because they are senseless," he told a televised economic conference in the coastal town of Sitges.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the IMF's European department had begun discussing contingency plans for an emergency loan to Spain as Madrid struggles to keep its banking sector afloat.
"Thoughts are already being discussed" on a rescue by the European department, a source "involved in the handling of the Spanish crisis" told the Journal.
But the IMF strongly denied any rescue was nigh.
"The IMF is not drawing up plans that involve financial assistance for Spain. Nor has Spain requested financial support from the IMF," spokesman Gerry Rice told journalists.
The meeting between the Lagarde and Saenz de Santamaria was "to discuss recent economic developments in Spain and the eurozone," he added.
Lagarde called the meeting "productive" but otherwise gave no hint as to what was discussed.
Speculation has mounted that Spain will seek a Greece-style rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union as the country endures economic recession and its banks crumble under the weight of massive bad real-estate loans.
Earlier Thursday the EU pressed Madrid to urgently clear up doubts over its mammoth rescue of stricken lender Bankia in a bid to calm markets.
As investors exited Spanish government bonds and stocks, the 27-nation bloc called on Madrid to provide details of its bailout of Bankia.
"What we need from the Spanish government is for it to communicate the restructuring plan for Bankia and the options it is considering to restructure and if possible recapitalize," said EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj.
Bankia has asked the state for 19 billion euros ($24 billion) to repair its books, in addition to 4.5 billion euros already injected, the biggest rescue in Spanish banking history.
But the Spanish government is already under severe pressure to reduce deficits even as the economy shrinks and joblessness mounts.
Guindos said a large majority of Spanish banks will pass the IMF's stress tests of the country's lenders, scheduled to be published on June 11.
"What it will say fundamentally is that 70 percent of Spanish banks are perfectly healthy and that problems are concentrated in the remaining 30 percent," De Guindos said in Sitges. (AFP)
