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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-07-16
CONTENTS
[01] ECB's Draghi hints that Greece may qualify for QE once in programme
[01] ECB's Draghi hints that Greece may qualify for QE once in programme
ANA-MPA -- European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi on Thursday
indicated that Greece may soon qualify to join the ECB's quantitative
easing programme once it gets its 3rd bailout, provided that it sticks
to the terms.
He also joined the other two creditor institutions, the European
Commission and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in saying that Greece
needs significant debt restructuring or relief:
"It's uncontroversial that debt relief is necessary and I think that
nobody has ever disputed that. The issue is what is the best form of debt
relief within our framework, within our legal institutional framework.
I think we should focus on this point in the coming weeks," he said.
Speaking to the press, Draghi said that the ECB was working on the
assumption that Greece remains in the eurozone, regarding his decision
to raise the ceiling on Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for Greek
banks by 900 million euros. He was strongly critical of those pushing
for a reduction in ELA, saying those exerting those pressures did not
respect the ECB's mandate as Europe's central bank and adding that
neither the ECB nor the Bank of Greece "can take decisions as to which
country will be part of the eurozone." Asked whether banks in Greece
will open, he admitted that their closure was damaging Greece's economy
but noted that capital controls were necessary to prevent a bank run.
In other statements, Draghi appeared confident that Greece will met
a 3.5-billion-euro repayment of bonds held by the ECB that is due on
Monday, as well as meeting payments to preferred lender IMF that are
currently in arrears.
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