BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on
Thursday praised the reform and budget consolidation efforts undertaken
by Italy and Spain.
“What Italy and Spain are achieving is grandiose,” the minister
said at a conference of the European People’s Party (EPP) here. “We’re
on a good path…and need to convince financial markets” of this, he
said. Schaeuble has argued that Spain is already on a successful reform
path and so does not need to apply for aid from its Eurozone peers.
In his speech today, the minister emphasized that monetary policy
can’t be a substitute for action by the Eurozone member states to
counter the debt crisis. “Using the printing press … would destroy
confidence,” Schaeuble said.
Still, Schaeuble again signaled that he supported the announcement
by the ECB for possible unlimited purchases of sovereign bonds.
“I advise the ECB to make its decisions in independence and to not
make them calculable,” Schaeuble said. “Because if a central bank starts
to set up rules it invites others to exploit them,” he cautioned.
Obviously referring to criticism by Bundesbank president Jens
Weidmann against the ECB bond buying program, the minister said the
monetary policy of the ECB cannot be based solely on the conception of
one national central bank.
At the same time, the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve
also “cannot be successfully carried over to Europe,” he reasoned. “For
Europe a somewhat more traditional understanding of monetary policy is
maybe more appropriate,” he reasoned.
Schaeuble said he will remind fellow ministers at the upcoming
IMF/World Bank meeting of their pledges to bring public debt down. While
Germany has met its commitments, “I’m not sure if others will be able to
say the same,” he remarked.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@mni-news.com
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