Thursday, March 5, 2015

ECB inflexible on Greek requests – Il Sole 24 Ore

History Article

Close

This article was published on March 6, 2015 at 06:38.

ELA ENHANCED

The board of directors has decided to increase to 500 million (68.8 billion euro) the roof

at the emergency liquidity

that you can provide to schools

NICOSIA

The European Central Bank will resume normal lending to Greek banks only when the government will have proven to meet commitments in the program agreed with international creditors. The ECB president, Mario Draghi, has also closed the door to the possibility that the institute Frankfurt authorizes higher emissions of Treasury of Athens, the way that the Government Tsipras had to beat to get a little ‘breathing, because violates the prohibition imposed by the European Treaties, the monetary financing.

Draghi, who also reiterated that “the ECB is an institution based on the rules and does not take political decisions,” did not fail then to resume controversially, without naming him, the Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, that on more than one occasion has destabilized the financial markets with his statements, further worsening the situation. A certain type of communication, said the central banker, “creates market volatility, increasing spreads and destroying collateral” that banks could use to finance itself.

The line held by Dragons against Athens is a way to emphasize that the ECB wants to stay out of the political game between Athens and its European partners, so that any decision to Frankfurt is conditioned, he said, to those of the Eurogroup, the finance ministers of the euro zone. But it is also a way to keep up the pressure on Athens because it respects its commitments, disputed even by the majority.

Draghi said the ECB “is the first to want to allocate funding to normal ‘Greek economy, as long as there are conditions and these are to be put in place quickly a process that shows the success of a program review. ” The head of the ECB recalls that when operations were suspended last month the program was out of line, for admission of the same government greek.

The no increased emissions of Treasury bonds (now 15 billion euro) was the message more explicit. The banks could use them as collateral to obtain liquidity from the central bank, funding at the same time the Government. In the Treaties, recalled Draghi, there is a prohibition on “direct and indirect” of monetary financing.

At the same time, Draghi wanted to emphasize that the ECB did not abandon Greece to its fate, indeed the has provided loans to 100 billion euro, doubled in the last two months, 68% of gross domestic product greek, the highest rate in the euro area, and that just yesterday the board has decided to increase by 500 million euro in 68.8 billion emergency liquidity to the roof that can be provided to the banks by the Central Bank of Greece through the door Ela. The conditions for the continuous use Ela are that banks are solvent (and Draghi said that they showed, the ECB or the exams last year, to have enough capital, and that much has been done on this front) and have adequate collateral for the operations. It was the ECB, he said, urging the Eurogroup to keep the 10 billion euro earmarked for the possible recapitalization of the banks immediately available in case.

Meanwhile, Greece (such as Cyprus ) will remain out of Qe, that the ECB will begin on Monday, because it is under review of the economic program, because its securities are not “investment grade” and are not supported by an active program, and because at the moment Greece is already above the limit of 33% of the debt of each individual issuer that the ECB has imposed. The Institute of Frankfurt has in fact still held about 19 billion euro debt greek purchased between 2010 and 2012. Only after the summer, when Athens will reimburse more than 6 billion, will fall below the threshold. If in the meantime, the program will be in order, will finally benefit from the Qe.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

GROWTH

Change% of GDP over the previous quarter

INFLATION

Change% annual consumer price

The DEPOSITS OF HOUSEHOLDS AND COMPANIES

In billions of euro

CONFIDENCE

Index PMI, manufacturing sector *



Permalink

LikeTweet

No comments:

Post a Comment