FRANKFURT (MNI) – Spain must urgently seek aid from the Eurozone
bailout fund, European Central Bank Governing Council member Luc Coene
told said during a debate at the University of Ghent, Belgian newspaper
De Standaard reported on Thursday.
“Spain urgently needs to seek emergency aid,” Coene said after
Madrid’s 10-year debt yields had risen back to around 6%. Should markets
become unsettled again, it is unclear what tools the ECB could use to
calm them, he added.
The ECB had previously said that it is ready to intervene in
government bond markets under the condition that a country seek aid from
the Eurozone’s bailout fund ESM.
Spain this far resisted a bailout, calling on the ECB to offer more
transparency on the possible scope of sovereign bond market
interventions and said they should be enough to produce a significant
improvement in its borrowing costs.
ECB Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen, one of the main
architects of the program, said Wednesday that “the aim of the OMT is to
take out the tail risks and not to create a uniform interest rate.”
Having covered its funding needs for 2012, Spain may well continue to
hold out.
-Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email: jtreeck@mni-news.com
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$,MT$$$$]
