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.