MD of the European Stability Mechanism out with a few comments 14 March
- Germany will assume role as political and economic anchor now Merkel has been returned to power
- if Greece continues with reforms it should be possible for it to regularly finance itself through markets
- debt haircut for Greece is by no means necessary
- ESM should be inc in EU treaty
- ESM could in future provide shorter term loans with looser conditions to stabilise economy
- could play a role in debt restructuring of countries but am sceptical about automatic maturity conditions
Plenty of calls lately from Germany and France for ESM to be given a status/role in EU similar to IMF so Regling understandably bigging it up.