ECB president Mario Draghi comments during meetings of IMF, World Bank in Washington in Saturday:
ON GREECE
- “We all want Greece to succeed. The answer is in the hands of the Greek government. Much more work is needed now and it is urgent. We want to reach a comprehensive policy package within which the policy priorities of the Greek government can be carefully assessed, a debt sustainability analysis can be made and a figure for the budget surplus can be determined.”
ON EMERGENCY LIQUIDITY ASSISTANCE (ELA) TO GREEK BANKS
- “ELA will continue to be given to the banks if they are judged to be solvent and if they have adequate collateral, which is the case now.”
ON RISK OF CONTAGION FROM GREECE
- “Now we are better equipped than we were in 2012, 2011, 2010. Having said that, we would certainly enter into uncharted waters if the crisis were to precipitate.”
ON EURO EXCHANGE RATE
- “The exchange rate is not a policy target, it is the outcome of different business cycles in different jurisdictions and different monetary policies or monetary policy cycles. So I cannot express any hope about it.”
ON THE ECB STOPPING ELA IF GREECE MISSED A DEBT PAYMENT
- “I don’t even want to contemplate such an event for the reason that the Greek leaders have repeatedly stated that they want to honor their obligations”.
ON IRREVERSIBILITY OF THE EURO
- “It is pointless to go short on the euro.”
ON U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE MONETARY POLICY
- “The perspective of rate hikes has to be assessed by competent monetary policy authorities. If it is well done, it is important because all our monetary policies, but especially those that started first, have been in the unconventional regime for a long time – the next rate hike in the U.S. will be the first in 8 years – so it is an experience that should be prepared and I know it is being prepared very, very carefully.
- “So if this is, as it is being prepared and communicated and is being pre-announced to markets very carefully for a long time, the consequences should be manageable.”
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com