FRANKFURT (MNI) – Some data show that a positive growth surprise in
the third quarter could be in the cards in the Eurozone, European
Central Bank Governing Council member Yves Mersch said in an interview
released Monday.

The central bank does not feel obstructed in its monetary policy
path by the actions of other central banks, Mersch told German daily
Financial Times Deutschland.

Expressing concern about banks in the Eurozone that are surviving
only thanks to funding from the central bank, Mersch hinted that the ECB
may consider doing something about this issue, though he insisted it was
too early to discuss the matter in detail.

“For the third quarter we indeed already have seen some data in the
Eurozone that indicates a positive surprise,” in terms of growth, Mersch
said. They go “in the direction of 0.4 to 0.6% growth.”

Mersch rejected the notion that the ECB would not be able to
continue with an exit from its accommodative monetary policy if other
central banks did not follow suit.

“We do not at all feel blocked by the path of others or like their
‘hostage’,” he said. “We are big and grown up and take the path that is
seen by us as necessary,” he explained.

“It is not the job of the ECB to support individual banks,” in the
same way as its task is not to support individual countries, he said.

The topic of dealing with banks that are over-reliant on the
central bank “is on the table and it is not excluded that the ECB if
appropriate will need to agree to measures” on this matter, he
indicated.

It is, however, “still too early to comment on that in detail,”
noting that national governments urgently need to find a solution for
their banks in crisis.

Mersch is not concerned about the current level of the euro versus
the dollar. “One cannot look excessively at bilateral exchange rates,”
he emphasized. “What is decisive is the effective exchange rate, and
there in the third quarter we were not above the second quarter.”

One also cannot “overinterpret” the combination of the euro’s rise
and rising interbank rates. “We still have a very accommodative monetary
policy and we are still providing unlimited liquidity.”

“This applies all the more so when one sees that provision of
credit has all but reached the turning point,” he said.

Mersch is sympathetic to the idea of impowering the euro rescue
fund in the future to purchase Eurozone government bonds. “It is
definitely a legitimate question as to whether one should not give the
fund the mandate to buy up government bonds.”

In any case, Mersch supports “sticking to the fund for the long
term,” instead of letting it expire in 2013. “In a currency union, in
which there is no unified government, one definitely also needs an
instrument for a crisis.”

Such a permanent mechanism would work “a little bit” like the IMF
functions at the global level, Mersch indicated, but ideally the money
from the rescue fund would not be needed, he was cited as saying.

–MNI Frankfurt; +49-69-720142; tbuell@marketnews.com

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