TOKYO (MNI) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki
Liikanen expressed reservations about boosting the ECB’s buying of
euro-zone government bonds, calling it “temporary by character,” the
Nikkei said on Thursday.

Liikanen, who heds the Finnish central bank, also told the paper in
Vienna recently that new, stronger liquidity-supplying measures are on
the horizon. He said Europe’s debt crisis “is challenging and there are
a lot of uncertainties.”

Liikanen said the ECB’s government-bond-buying program, expanded in
August to include Italian and Spanish debt, is a “nonstandard measure”
with an inherent time limit. He also expressed opposition to a proposal
to give bank status to the European Financial Stability Facility, a step
that would allow it to borrow from the ECB.

tokyo@marketnews.com
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