–Updates With ECB Exec Board Skipping Conference, Weidmann Attending
FRANKFURT (MNI) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will
not attend the annual Federal Reserve conference in Jackson Hole this
week, the ECB confirmed Tuesday.
An ECB spokesman said Draghi’s decision to skip the conference in
Wyoming, organized by the Kansas City Federal Reserve, was taken due to
his heavy workload over the coming days.
The decision comes as the ECB’s Governing Council continues to
discuss the details of a planned new bond-buying program to be conducted
in conjunction with sovereign bond purchases by the ESM/EFSF rescue
funds.
No other members of the ECB Executive Board will be attending
Jackson Hole either, the ECB said, something which had not been clear
until now. The Bundesbank did confirm, however, that its president,
Jens Weidmann, a loud critic of the bond buying plan, will still be
travelling to the conference.
ECB Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen Monday evening said the
ECB will present the details of its bond-buying proposal on September 6,
following the Governing Council meeting that day. His comments came
despite media reports that the central bank would wait until after
Germany’s Constitutional Court rules on the ESM fund September 12.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to speak at Jackson Hole on
Friday.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: ccermak@mni-news.com —
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