BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Central Bank will not negotiate with
Spain about bond yield levels that could be achieved through activation
of the ECB’s OMT bond market intervention programme, ECB President Mario
Draghi reiterated on Thursday.
“The conditions under which the OMT (outright monetary
transactions) are to be activated are very strict, they don’t speak
about negotiations or agreement about a certain interest rate or
anything like that,” he said.
Draghi made the statement at the ECB’s monthly press conference in
Frankfurt in response to comments by a Spanish journalist on Madrid’s
reluctance to ask for EU aid that could induce the ECB to buy its bonds
in the secondary market and push down borrowing costs.
The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said it wants
assurances from the ECB about the benefits it could expect from any bond
market intervention by the central bank before it requests aid from the
European Stability Mechanism, which would come with policy strings
attached.
–Brussels Newsroom, +324-952-28374; pkoh@mni-news.com
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$S$$$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$,MT$$$$]
