• Not aware that Ireland has applied for aid
  • Bond purchase programme played an important contribution to normalise situation when introduced
  • Asked on , up to Irish authorities to decide whether to ask for aid
  • ECB provides liquidity according to its rules
  • On Portugal and Spain, says several countries under pressure from markets but situations are different
  • Asked if other countries will need aid, says depends on market developments which cannot be predicted
  • Does not think ECB has lost faith in bond purchase programme
  • If Ireland tapped aid it could use 60 bln euro EU stabilisation mechanism as starting point

Elsewhere

  • Irish 5 year cds at 507 bps, up 10 bps on day
  • Portuguese 5 year cds at 422 bps, up 10 bps on day
  • Greek 5 year cds at 868 bps, up 15 bps on day

Meanwhile, EUR/USD sits at 1.3600 in what I’ll call consolidative trade. Another word I could use is boring.