BERLIN (MNI) – OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria on Thursday said
he believes that the European single currency will be around for a long
time and have an elevated international status over time.
“I think the euro has a long life,” Gurria said in a speech at a
financial conference here. “More and more countries will be joining the
euro and it will get a stronger role as a reserve currency.”
The fiscal problems Greece has will likely not be repeated by other
EMU states because better monitoring won’t allow Eurozone members to
cheat on their fiscal statistics as Greece did, the OECD chief asserted.
“I don’t think we will have more cases like Greece,” he said.
Still, Gurria cautioned that financial markets are currently “like
heat seeking missiles, merciless and brutal…striking wherever they see
a weakness.”
Countries therefore need to get their fiscal houses in order and
undertake the necessary structural reforms, he said. “Only structural
reforms will make the recovery sustainable,” Gurria said.
He also warned that “we haven’t finished capitalizing the financial
system, especially in Europe.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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