FRANKFURT (MNI) – Inflation in the Eurozone in the medium term will
be in line with the European Central Bank’s definition of price
stability, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in a German newspaper
interview released Friday.
Trichet told the Aachener Zeitung that “in the medium term, price
developments will correspond to our definition of price stability: below
2%, close to 2%.”
With respect to the sovereign debt crisis, Trichet rejected again a
restructuring of Greek debt, demanding that “Greece must completely and
rigorously implement this program” of fiscal consolidation imposed on
it.
“It is very important,” he continued, “to correct the errors of the
past and thus to pave the way for the sustainable creation of jobs.”
It is of the upmost interest for Germany as well “that Greece
submits to an economic adjustment and is a stable partner in Europe and
the Eurozone,” he argued.
Trichet professed a lack of understanding at objections to help for
Greece, arguing that “everywhere in the world, among friends people help
each other” and that it would be strange “if Europeans in difficult
times turned out to be less unified than can be seen elsewhere in the
world.”
There were “no discussions at all” about providing aid during the
Asian crisis, he pointed out.
Trichet demanded that the European Commission and the Parliament
“go further and be much stricter” in strengthening Europe’s fiscal rules
framework.
“We need automatic sanctions for deficit sinners,” he said. “The
whole process — from the determination of a threatening budgetary tilt
up to the actual pronouncement of sanctions — has to take place
automatically.”
–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email: dbarwick@marketnews.com
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