A miner throws a firecracker at the Industry Ministry during a demonstration to protest against cuts in Madrid, Thursday, May 31, 2012. Miners coming from all around Spain demonstrate in Madrid amid fear on losing their jobs. Spain is moving closer to the financial tipping-point that could force it to ask for a bailout as the country's borrowing costs neared unsustainable levels Wednesday. The country's economic fortunes have gone from boom to bust over the past decade.(AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
A miner throws a firecracker at the Industry Ministry during a demonstration to protest against cuts in Madrid, Thursday, May 31, 2012. Miners coming from all around Spain demonstrate in Madrid amid fear on losing their jobs. Spain is moving closer to the financial tipping-point that could force it to ask for a bailout as the country's borrowing costs neared unsustainable levels Wednesday. The country's economic fortunes have gone from boom to bust over the past decade.(AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
A man rummages through a recycling trash container in front of the Bankia bank headquarters in Madrid, Thursday May 31, 2012. The European Union urged Spain on Thursday to come clean on how it plans to finance the overhaul of its banking sector, warning that uncertainty over this has contributed the recent market turmoil and the country's soaring borrowing costs. A European Commission spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj, told Spanish National Radio that the conservative government in Madrid needed to spell out quickly how it plans to finance the recapitalization of troubled lender Bankia SA and whether there are other banks burdened by toxic real estate assets that might need assistance. (AP Photo/Paul White)
A woman leaves a bank as a piece of cardboard holds on the entrance reading, ''Closed by Cynicism'' during a march against cutback plans by Spain's government in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, May 31, 2012. The European Union urged Spain Thursday to come clean on how it plans to finance the overhaul of its banking sector, warning that uncertainty over this has contributed the recent market turmoil and soaring borrowing costs. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
People protest in front a bank during the protest against cutback plans by Spain's government in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, May 31, 2012. The European Union urged Spain Thursday to come clean on how it plans to finance the overhaul of its banking sector, warning that uncertainty over this has contributed the recent market turmoil and soaring borrowing costs. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
MADRID (AP) ? Spain's finance minister claimed the country was fiscally stable now that its autonomous regions were meeting deficit reduction targets, but investors remained wary and pushed the government's bond yields higher on Friday.
The 17 semi-autonomous regions ? whose high debts have helped fuel fears about the broader country's financial future ? will meet a target to get their collective deficits below 1.5 percent this year, Cristobal Montoro told a news conference.
They ran a deficit of 0.45 percent of GDP in the first quarter, and with ?5 billion in money from the central government ran a balanced budget.
"This means that since the beginning of the year the government's plan is working," said Montoro.
Most of Spain's excessive deficits in 2011 ? which at 8.9 percent were almost three times the EU limit of 3 percent ? came from the regions' overspending.
Eight of the regions, including powerful Catalonia in the northeast, saw their credit ratings downgraded this week by the Fitch agency. The ones that issues debt are paying high rates. Montoro said the government is close to completing a mechanism that will allow the regions to issue debt through the central government at lower rates.
Worries about Spain's deficits as well as its banking sector ? where expensive bailouts risk overwhelming public finances ? have pushed the central government's borrowing rates toward unsustainable levels. In midafternoon trading the interest rate on 10-year Spanish bonds stood was up 0.11 percentage points to 6.56. The rate was more than 5.4 percentage points higher than the equivalent German one, which is considered a safe haven for investors.
Despite the rise in cost, Montoro insisted Spain can meet its debt obligations. "Spain has the ability to make good on that debt in its entirety."
Concern about Spain and the wider 17-country eurozone has shaken financial markets in recent weeks, pushing the euro to a 2-year low on Friday.
Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos this week that Spain and Europe were at a crossroads as speculation mounts over whether the country will need a bailout. The danger is that Spain's ?1 trillion ($1.24 trillion) economy is far bigger than those of already bailed-out Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.
Spain's banking sector is laden with soured investments on real estate and the government needs ?19 billion to rescue just one lender, Bankia SA, at a time of recession and crushing unemployment of 24.4 percent.
"I don't know if we are on the edge of a cliff, but we are in a very, very difficult position," de Guindos said Thursday evening in a speech to business leaders in Sitges, a resort town near Barcelona. "The future of the euro is going to play out in the next few weeks in Spain and Italy."
Bond yields ? a measure of investor confidence in a country's debt ? were also very high in Italy, which has big debts and is in recession. Its 10-year bond yield rose to 5.93 percent on Friday on fears that it could be affected by the instability of Spain.
UBS Investment Research said there is no a consensus that the Spanish banking sector in general needs a big recapitalization. It estimated the sector needs between ?80 billion and ?100 billion in new funds.
"The Spanish State should be able to sustain the recapitalization costs without losing control of its finances," UBS analysts said in a note to clients. "We recognize however that financing this intervention in current market conditions will be difficult."
De Guindos supported the recent proposal by the European Commission for a centralized banking authority with the financial capacity to to inject capital directly into troubled banks without having to go through governments first.
He also said Europe needs a regional bank deposit insurance plan like the United States has and a "banking union" to coordinate regulation among countries.
German, however, opposes the idea of a centralized authority that can spend money ? much of which Berlin supplies ? directly on shaky banks.
"We don't see now how such ideas are supposed to help with the short-term management of the current questions," said German Finance Ministry spokesman Johannes Blankenheim. "The fiscal compact is the beginning of the fiscal union and, as a perspective, one can imagine stronger (banking) supervision."
Top financial officials, however, have been warning European leaders they must take action before it is too late.
European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said this week that the setup of the eurozone was unsustainable and called for measures, such as a banking union, as proposed by the European Commission.
World Bank chief Robert Zoellick made similar points in an opinion piece printed in the Financial Times on Friday.
"Eurozone leaders may be nearing a 'break the glass' moment: when one smashes the pane protecting the emergency fire alarm," Zoellick wrote in the paper. He likewise supported the idea of having a central authority that can put money into ailing banks.
Despite is resistance to such a move, Germany did back the European Commission's proposal to give Spain more time to reduce its deficit. It stood at 8.9 percent of GDP last year, and the goal is to get it down to 5.3 percent by the end of 2012.
Blankenheim noted that Spain has stated its intention of cutting the deficit to 3 percent by next year, "but we also see that, because of unfavorable economic developments, it could be difficult to reach these targets."
"Spain is fulfilling its commitments in the deficit proceedings and so there is no reason to escalate the proceedings against Spain," Blankenheim told reporters in Berlin. "The Spanish government is tackling with determination the necessary reform measures, and the German government is convinced that this determination will be mirrored on the markets."
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Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
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