Spiegel magazine (without citing sources) reports that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on quantitative-easing plans
- Plan is national central banks would buy bonds issued by their own country
- Envisages limits of 20 percent to 25 percent on purchases of each country’s debt
- Says Greece will be excluded from the program because its bonds don’t fulfill the necessary quality criteria
An ECB spokesman declined to comment on the design of any QE program
A German government spokesman said earlier that Merkel and Draghi met on Jan. 14 for “regular informal talks,” while declining to comment on the topic
–
Klaas Knot, governor of the Dutch central bank, told Spiegel that he’d support putting national central banks in charge of implementing QE:
- “If each central bank was only buying debt of its own country, the danger of an unwanted redistribution of financial risk would be lower”
- “We have to avoid that decisions are taken through the back door of the ECB balance sheet that have to continue to be reserved for elected politicians in euro-area countries.”
- By keeping the risk of government-bond purchases at the national level, the ECB would show that it is “exclusively concerned about monetary and not fiscal policy”
