ECB’s Draghi Rejects Blackmailing Accusation

“Let me disagree with you about everything you said,” Draghi told Portuguese lawmaker Marisa Matias during his regular hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels. He was responding to a question about the withdrawal of a waiver that allowed the ECB to accept the country’s junk-rated debt as collateral.

“It’s bit rich when you look at our exposure to Greece” which totals 104 billion euros ($113.8 billion), Draghi says. “What sort of blackmail is this? We haven’t created any rule for Greece, rules were in place and they’ve been applied.”

The exchange came amid signs that Greece could run out of money by early next month. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is meeting today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss reform commitments that could unlock stalled aid money. Draghi said the ECB will reintroduce the waiver at some point, ‘‘but several conditions have to be satisfied.’’

Bloomberg

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