BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Central Bank’s assessment of Eurozone
liquidity conditions and needs has not changed and it is permanently
reviewing its unconventional support for the economy, ECB President
Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.
“We did not change our assessment of liquidity,” Trichet told
reporters at a press conference in Frankfurt. “There is no change in our
own attitude.”
“We are still in a mode of full allotment,” Trichet said, adding
that the central bank was providing liquidity as asked for by the
region’s banks.
“As we continue to say: we continue to monitor all developments
very closely,” he added.
The ECB has said it plans gradually to phase out its extraordinary
liquidity support for the Eurozone economy as the recovery takes hold,
he reminded. “You can see precisely this progressive phasing-out taking
place in these past days.”
“In the Governing Council … we are all assessing the situation,
we are not at all challenging the fact that we need the non-standard
measures,” Trichet said.
Trichet said the ECB was implementing its bond-buying programme.
“We have decided to have this programme several months ago and we
are implementing our programme,” he said, adding that the aim of the
plan was to ensure the correct transmission of the central bank’s
monetary policy.
Asked about the ECB’s future plans for its collateral policy,
Trichet said: “We are permanently reviewing our policies.” He would not
be drawn on how or when the collateral rules might be changed.
Trichet was speaking at a press conference after the ECB held its
key rate at 1% for the 18th-straight month.
–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
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