BERLIN (MNI) – ECB Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen on Friday
said the ECB will not compromise on its primary goal to assure price
stability and will act immediately if it sees inflation pressures
building up in the Eurozone.
Speaking at a conference organized by the Alfred Herrhausen society
here, Asmussen said he sees no inflation pressure in the Eurozone at
present. “Inflation expectations for the whole Eurozone are firmly in
line with our target level” for price stability, he said.
Still, the ECB “is eying very carefully whether inflation pressures
are building up and if it sees [that they are] it would immediately move
to counter them,” Asmussen stressed.
“All that we are seeing is that inflation expectations are firmly
anchored and we will take care to make sure it stays this way,” the
Executive Board member affirmed.
Turning to the Eurozone debt crisis, Asmussen said any additional
external financing needs of Greece must be met by the Eurozone member
states. “This [gap] cannot be closed by the ECB,” he stressed.
Regarding the ECB’s new bond-buying program, the OMT, Asmussen
reminded that its goal is not to produce a single sovereign bond yield
across the whole Eurozone. Rather, “we want to eliminate the foreign
exchange rate premium from bond yields,” he explained.
He also noted that the ECB would not automatically start buying the
bonds of each country that agreed to enter an aid program under Europe’s
permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@mni-news.com
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