BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has
denied media reports that Europe’s bailout fund EFSF could soon start
buying Spanish government bonds.
“No, there is nothing to these speculations,” Schaeuble told the
German weekly Welt am Sonntag in an interview published Sunday.
The minister argued that the high yields on Spanish government
bonds were not overburdening the country. “The fiscal needs of Spain
over the short term aren’t that large,” he said.
The European rescue package for Spain’s financial sector is
sufficient, Schaeuble reckoned, predicting that Madrid’s reform efforts
would soon be recognized by the markets.
However, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported over the weekend
that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi planned to tackle the
debt crisis together with the EFSF.
According to the magazine, the EFSF is to buy government bonds on
the primary markets, while the ECB will buy bonds on the secondary
markets. This would double the fire-power of the European
crisis-fighting instruments, Der Spiegel wrote.
Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian CSU, the sister party of
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU, said in a television interview aired
Sunday that he opposed bond purchases by the ECB.
“One would bypass the national parliaments with such a policy,”
Seehofer told the German ZDF public television. “If the European Central
Bank purchased bonds it would circumvent the Bundestag,” the lower
house of parliament, he said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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