Bundesbank Chief Says Saving Greece Not ECB’s Job

Resolving the crisis over Greece’s funding needs is a job for policymakers and Athens—not the European Central Bank (ECB), the President of the German Bundesbank told CNBC on Thursday.

“The question of how a country that is in need of financing—and has no market access—is to be financed is a question that policymakers have to answer,” said Jens Weidmann, head of the German central bank and a decision-making member of the ECB’s executive board.

Speaking from Frankfurt after presenting the Bundesbank’s 2014 accounts, he added: “That is what the rescue funds are there for, and they have to see whether the conditions are met for the funding to continue or be disbursed. This is not the job of monetary policy.”

Greece’s coffers are running dry as the battle between its new left-wing government and the country’s bailout supervisors over the terms of its financial aid programs drags on.

The German parliament—along with its euro zone neighbors—approved a four-month extension of Greece’s bailout last month. This was despite widespread opposition from German politicians, who have pushed for aid to be conditional on Greece instigating more severe structural reforms and austerity measures.

On Thursday, Weidmann said the ECB was just sticking “to our rules” in insisting that certain conditions were met before Greece received further funding.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza