Greece will return to growth in 2014, ECB’s Asmussen says
European Central Bank Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen said he expects Greece to return to growth in 2014 provided it implements its austerity program, and the aim is to keep the country in the euro and return it to capital markets starting in 2015, Rheinische Post reported, citing an interview.
Asmussen also said investors shouldn?t assume the ECB will conduct more long-term refinancing operations and existing bailout funds are sufficient to protect euro-region countries from speculators, according to the report.
?What matters is that the ECB?s non-standard measures are only available for a limited time and nobody should conclude from the fact that we conducted such a refinancing operation twice that we will do it for a third time,? Asmussen was cited as saying. ?Discussions in capital markets about ever-bigger and more massive firewalls are based, in my opinion, on the simplified assumption that only a single measure can resolve the crisis. That?s wishful thinking.? [Bloomberg]
