Bundesbank todavía en contra de que BCE reanude compras de bonos soberanos
Genevieve Signoret & Patrick Signoret
Actualización 29 agosto 2012: Lea la versión en inglés del artículo original de Spiegel.
El presidente del Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, repitió en entrevista que no apoya el plan que está siendo contemplado por el BCE de reanudar el programa de compras de bonos soberanos (Reuters). El Bundesbank siempre ha estado en contra de este programa.
The head of Germany’s Bundesbank stepped up his opposition to the European Central Bank’s latest moves to battle the euro zone’s debt crisis on Sunday, saying that plans to buy bonds risked becoming a drug on which governments would get hooked.
In the latest sign of a deepening rift within the ECB that has worried financial markets, Jens Weidmann warned in an interview in weekly Der Spiegel that the buying programme verged on the taboo for the bank of outright financing of governments.
He also hinted he was not alone at the ECB in his concern over the programme – in contrast to indications by the bank’s President Mario Draghi that Weidmann had been isolated in expressing reservations.
[…] Financing governments has long been a line in the sand for the ECB. Weidmann’s predecessor as Bundesbank chief, Axel Weber, quit last year in protest at the ECB’s existing, but now dormant, bond-buying scheme – the Securities Markets Programme (SMP).
“We should not underestimate the risk that central bank financing can become addictive like a drug,” Weidmann said.
The Bundesbank retains substantial influence within Germany and on financial markets due to its inflation-fighting credentials but, as just one of 17 constituents at the ECB, it is unlikely it could scupper Draghi’s plan.
Policymakers are posturing over the programme ahead of their Sept. 6 meeting, at which markets will be looking for the central bank to spell out more details of the plan.
Central bank sources told Reuters on Friday that the ECB is considering setting yield band targets under the new bond-buying programme to allow it to keep its strategy shielded and avoid speculators trying to cash in.