Plan to shore up euro on hold
Source: Agencies |
December 1, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EUROPEAN finance ministers failed to deliver the broad outlines of a plan to shore up the euro yesterday, delaying action until their bosses meet in less than a week and a half.
Though the meetings since Tuesday have not yielded anything concrete about what's likely to come out of the European Union leaders meeting on December 9, there's growing speculation that Europe is readying a plan to make the 17 countries that use the euro more unified and ruled by stricter budgetary rules.
That, analysts said, could allow the European Central Bank to take a more central role in the crisis - seen as crucial to stabilize the debt crisis that's seen three countries already bailed out.
"The new mantra seems to be 'Build it, and they will lend,' in the sense if they promise the ECB that they will gradually move to a fiscal union, the central bank will buy sufficient amounts of government bonds to stabilise the market," said Gary Jenkins, chief economist at Evolution Securities in London.
Markets appear to be giving Europe the benefit of the doubt for now especially after the world's leading central banks said jointly they would make it easier for banks to get hold of the dollars they may need.
The forbearance in the markets is unlikely to last long though, especially if the summit next week fails to match swelling expectations of a much tighter eurozone.
The EU's leading economic official said as much.
"We are now entering the critical period of 10 days to complete and conclude the crisis response of the European Union," EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
Yesterday's meeting in Brussels has brought in the 10 non-euro finance ministers from the 27-nation EU, who have been pressing hard for a swift solution for fear that their economies will suffer.
Sweden's Anders Borg said there was no more time to waste and that the markets don't provide "any honeymoons" for any countries that stray from fiscal austerity. He stressed that Spain and Italy need to "take out all the skeletons" from their financial closets and implement budgetary belt tightening measures.
Many economists say the 17 nations that use the euro have little choice but to back proposals for much closer coordination of their spending and budget policies.
"If the eurozone is to survive, there needs to be more fiscal union," said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University in the state of New York.
For struggling economies, this might be the necessary price of survival. With such discipline in place, the ECB could then agree to buy government bonds from Europe's troubled countries. Doing so could help lower their borrowing costs and enable them to finance their debts.
Potentially, the ECB has unlimited financial firepower through its ability to print money. However, Germany finds the idea of monetizing debts unappealing, warning that it lets the more profligate countries off the hook for their bad practices. In addition, it conjures up bad memories of hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920s.
The ECB has been reluctant in taking on a bigger firefighting role as it may let profligate countries off the hook.
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