Osborne Criticises Eurozone Governments

George Osborne has told Sky News that eurozone governments have not done enough to tackle the debt crisis.

The Chancellor's comments on Jeff Randall Live came after he joined finance ministers in Luxembourg to discuss the Greek debt crisis.

Speaking on his return to Manchester, he said: "I am not pretending that by the end of the day we had a solution to the eurozone crisis, much to my frustration.

"But I think we did take some steps forward. I think everyone now is aware of the gravity of the situation in the eurozone.

"I am confident that we are moving forward and for the UK chancellor, not being in the euro, I am more and more convinced that the biggest single boost you could make to the UK economy this autumn would be a resolution of the eurozone crisis."

He told Randall his message to ministers was that they have to "end this week-by-week story of what's going to happen next. They've got to make those decisions and stick to them".

Asked if he was confident that Greece would not go bust, he said: "What I am confident of is that the international community recognises the gravity of the situation and are gripping it.

"These are decisions that require political will and the political will is there."

Ministers have stalled on a decision as to whether to pay Greece the next instalment of the 110bn euro (£94.4bn) bailout initially agreed in July.

This week the Greek government admitted it would not meet its deficit reduction targets.

That has helped fuel continuing volatility on global markets.