ROME (MNI) – Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European
Financial Stability Facility, said Friday that the EFSF had substantial
firepower to counter the debt crisis.
Speaking at a conference here, Regling said that with Greece,
Portugal and Ireland already in bailout programs, the EFSF still had
unused resources of E400 billion. In addition, he said, “there’s the IMF
that made the political commitment to come up with one third” of the
amount of any program.
Thus, he said, if the EFSF were to commit its remaining E400
billion, “I would expect that the IMF would also come with E200
billion.”
Moreover, he noted, “we have been working on leveraging these
resources … we don’t know how much leverage will be possible, but
there will be some. And the IMF will be there if there will be a need.”
As it is, the EFSF has enough to cover the funding needs of Spain
and Italy next year, he said. “And I don’t think they would need to be
taken off the market” in any case.
It was thus not quite accurate to say that “only the ECB could do
it,” Regling said.
He added that while the political process of solving the debt
crisis “is always rocky and noisy and controversial,” he was certain
that European leaders “will do what is needed to preserve the euro and
financial stability.”
–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email: dbarwick@marketnews.com
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