Storia dell'articolo
Chiudi

Questo articolo è stato pubblicato il 25 ottobre 2013 alle ore 07:43.

My24

Is this, do you think, your most important contribution, rather than lowering interest rates or providing more liquidity through another longer-term refinancing operation?
In general terms there are three reasons banks don't lend: a lack of liquidity - and that is not the case on average in the euro area today, with the banks repaying the two three-year LTROs; a lack of capital, which cannot be addressed by the ECB but is a matter for bank shareholders and, if that is not possible, fiscal backstops; and heightened risk aversion. We provide liquidity as needed and will do the comprehensive exercise.

There are very different perceptions in Italy and your own country about the respective other country and about what the ECB should do.
I now look at this question as a European with a German passport. This is what makes our job interesting and difficult at the same time: the European perspective. I travel a lot around Germany and talk to people and hear that we at the ECB are doing too much, exceeding our mandate. Someone even took us to the Constitutional Court on that. In Italy, people ask: why don't you do more? I take note of both perceptions, but we do what is needed to ensure price stability in the euro area as a whole. We are the central bank to all 17 countries.

Lack of growth remains a huge issue. Where will growth come from in the euro area?
In the second quarter the euro area came out of recession after six quarters. That is good news, but it's very, very gradual, fragile, uneven and with downside risks. The major source of future growth is growth-enhancing structural reforms. We always look a bit inward: what is Germany doing, versus Italy, versus France? But the key question is: how can we Europeans compete globally in the economy of the 21st century, where we have new competitors, which are much stronger than 10 or 20 years ago? We need to cooperate much more, deepen the Internal Market, join forces with cross-border mergers – even in banking, where they are very rare (notwithstanding UniCredit-HVB). The aim in the end is to create jobs. Unemployment at this level is unacceptable. One in four young people in Europe are out of a job. As structural reforms take time, we need to resort to active labour market policies, like vocational training. Otherwise, we risk a lost generation.

The little growth there is comes from exports. German and Italian companies meeting in Bolzano this week raised the question of the strength of the euro.
Our answer does not change. We don't have an explicit exchange rate target. The exchange rate is factored into our inflation and growth forecasts.

Shopping24

Dai nostri archivi