The European Central Bank should play a full role in fighting the eurozone debt crisis, the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria said on Monday. "There are instruments in Europe, there is the ECB," Gurria said on French radio station BFM, against a background of controversy over whether the ECB should increase massively its purchases of government bonds.
"If we don't use them when we need them, then why are they there?" He said the ECB "is an instrument that must serve the citizens, must serve the economy - not the other way around." Gurria said he was pleased "that the ECB's new administration is beginning to cut rates" and that it says that "when there is more discipline (...) in the countries, it could increase the interventions of the ECB." "It's a very good balance (...) there must be fiscal discipline and at the same time the full utilisation of European instruments, which include the ECB," he said.
The OECD, which brings together some of the main developed world economies, last week called on the ECB to do more to stop the spread of the debt crisis in the eurozone. Several European countries, led by France, want the Frankfurt-based ECB to increase its purchases of debt issued by distressed nations. Germany is opposed to this, saying that the first solution to the crisis lies in strict budgetary discipline.
The head of the ECB Mario Draghi has hinted that the central bank might have more room for manoeuvre in using policy instruments once EU governments enhance budgetary discipline, but has also insisted that the bank's current bond-buying programme is limited.
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