Ex-ECB’s Stark: ECB Yielding To Political Pressure: Press

FRANKFURT (MNI) – A majority on the European Central Bank’s
Governing Council appears on the brink of yielding to political
pressure, thus disregarding the central bank’s core mandate and
independence, former ECB Executive Board member Juergen Stark warned in
a commentary published on Thursday.

“The political pressure on the central bank is massive,” Stark said
in today’s issue of Die Welt.

Stark criticized ECB President Mario Draghi’s announcement last
month that the ECB would consider outright bond buys if governments
under pressure accepted financial assistance via the European bailout
fund.

“Monetary policy must not be conditional,” Stark said, adding that
the central bank risked stepping beyond its mandate.

Stark reiterated his opposition to the ECB’s bond-buying program,
stressing that the Eurosystem was taking on “enormous risks” with the
purchase of government debt and that the separation of monetary and
fiscal policy had already become blurred.

— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@mni-news.com —

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