By last Tuesday it looked as if the eurozone was disentangling in quick time. Despite Ireland having been pledged €67.5bn from Europe and the IMF, at interest rates perfectly pitched to discourage more euro states from accepting costly bailouts, Portuguese and Spanish government interest rates soared to new records. On Thursday the European Central Bank held the line by keeping the markets guessing about further substantial measures. Its initial fusillade was rather tame: it again bought the sovereign debt paper of a few eurozone states.

But ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said a lot when he commented that it was now up to European leaders to do more. As Ireland knows only too well, the ECB’s sovereign bond purchases failed to keep us out of the bailout. It did buy a bit of time, however.

By the end of the week, key interest rates for Portugal – which was teetering last weekend on the verge of joining Ireland and Greece in the bailout crowd – fell dramatically below the relegation zone of around 5%. The three-year money is a key indicator because Greece is paying 5.2% for its bailout cash. Despite the rhetoric, Ireland is paying roughly the same as Greece when you take averages of the 5.8% interest rate we will pay over more than seven years on the €45bn borrowed from Europe and the 3.1% rate on the €22.5bn tapped from the IMF for three years.

By the weekend, ECB purchases sent Portuguese rates for three-year money back down to 4.1% from 5.3%, which was bailout territory. Spanish three-year money also fell sharply to 3.45% from 4.2%. The ECB has bought Portugal some time and strengthened Spanish defences.

For the record, Irish three-year rates in the bailout fell to 6% from 7.4%. But many observers await the next market assault on the euro.