FRANKFURT (MNI) – European Central Bank Governing Council member
Erkki Liikanen said Friday that he was open to the idea of cooperation
between the ECB and the International Monetary Fund, and perhaps even
positive on it.
Liikanen, who heads the Bank of Finland, told Finnish TV station
MTV3 that with respect to such cooperation, “our stance is open and
maybe even positive as long as the IMF and ECB rules are followed.”
“The IMF has a large advantage in crisis situations as it enjoys
great confidence and credibility,” he said. “On the other hand, they
have experience on the conditionality of funding. All such fixed-term
funding has to definitely be conditional.”
Asked why the ECB’s bond-purchasing program was not expanded, he
said: “Every nation has to get its public finances in order. Italy has
progressed significantly, the others have to advance along the same
route.”
“Brussels has gone forward,” he commented the outcome of the summit
of EU leaders in the European capital. “It is important that there is
common fiscal discipline as problems can easily be transmitted.”
“The markets have to be assured in order to get financing with
reasonable interest rates,” he added.
Although “banks have to be capitalized,” he said, “this is not a
job of a couple of days, this is a longer project, a marathon.”
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
[TOPICS: M$$CR$,M$X$$$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$$,MT$$$$]
