Ireland and Spain said Thursday they could stand on their own feet once their bailout programs end in the coming months, marking significant steps as the euro zone battles to exit a four-year debt crisis.
The currency union's finance ministers hailed the decisions as signs that their strategy of budget cuts, economic overhauls and long-term rescue loans was working.

Spanish finance chief, Luis de Guindos, left, with his Italian peer, Fabrizio Saccomanni, in Brussels on Thursday. Zuma Press

"This shows that our policy of stabilization of the European currency is successful and right," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said as he arrived for a meeting with his euro-zone counterparts in Brussels.
But the moves by Dublin and Madrid not to seek extensions of their aid plans also carry risks, especially as new figures showed that the euro zone grew just 0.1% in the third quarter and the European Central Bank embarks on a thorough cleanup of banks' balance sheets.
"This is the right decision for Ireland, and now is the right time to take this decision," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers in Dublin after a meeting with his cabinet. "This is the latest in a series of steps to return Ireland to normal economic, budgetary and funding conditions."
Spain's Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said in Brussels that "the closure of Spain's banking bailout is good news for both the Spanish and the European economy." "This is a clean break, and now we have a banking system that is more solid and more solvent, with every indicator pointing in the right direction," he added.
But both countries leave their bailouts with high debts—Ireland's is projected to hit 124% of gross domestic product by the end of year, while Spain's is expected to reach 94% of GDP—high unemployment and big deficits.