Monday, September 22, 2014

WEEKEND RECAP: The ECB does not provide for repurchases of loans … – Les Echos

WEEKEND RECAP: The ECB does not provide for repurchases of loans … – Les Echos

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) – The European Central Bank (ECB) has no plans for now to include a program to buy government bonds in its monetary easing, said Christian Noyer, a member of the Governing Council of the ECB, in an interview published Saturday by the German weekly Wirtschaftswoche.

“We have not planned quantitative easing – we look first to see what the results of our monetary policy announced in June and September will be,” said Christian Noyer, who is also governor of the Bank of France.

The ECB announced in June two target refinancing operations four years or TLTRO. She then lowered interest rates in September and announced a program to buy private sector assets. The president of the Central Bank, Mario Draghi, had then suggested that quantitative easing remained possible.

“We will see the final results in about 18 months, although we should begin to see the first effects earlier,” said Christian Noyer.

In this interview, the governor of the Bank of France also expressed some criticism of the new system of rotation of voting rights in the ECB, which will come into force in January 2015, with the arrival of Lithuania in the monetary union.

This rotation system, introduced last week, split into two groups the governors of the national central banks of the euro area, one consisting of large countries and one of the smallest. At each meeting, one member of the group consisting of the five largest countries – Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – will not vote, while three members of the remaining group consists of fourteen Governors will refrain.

After Spain, France will become the next country to give up its right to vote under this system of rotation.

The six members of the ECB Executive Board, based in Frankfurt, have a permanent voting.

Christian Noyer, the fact that every five months, some of the largest countries in the euro zone, like Germany, are deprived of their right to vote is a mistake.

“Germany, in particular, is affected by any decision taken by the ECB to the extent that it represents nearly 30% of the economy of the euro area, [and] for France, this represents about 20%, “said the central banker.

-Natalia Drozdiak, Dow Jones Newswires (French Version Emilie Palvadeau)

Dow Jones Newswires

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