BERLIN: Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview published on Saturday that any decision about Germany increasing the size of its contribution to the euro zone's permanent rescue fund would be made in January.
European leaders agreed in Brussels last week to accelerate the launch of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) by a year to mid-2012 to help solve the euro debt crisis, but questions have arisen about the size and timing of contributions.
In an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Schaeuble said the ESM could be more effective if it is set up faster and is larger than planned.
"The ESM will be able to do its job faster and better if it gets more capital and gets that more quickly," Schaeuble was quoted saying in an advance of the article to be published on Sunday.
"It's possible that we'll accelerate this process to quickly increase the clout of the rescue mechanism," Schaeuble said. "But we first have to wait for decisions in Brussels in January."Schaeuble acknowledged that increasing the tranche could mean Germany's new net borrowing in 2012 could raise.
On Tuesday, the Die Welt daily reported that Germany would contribute 8.6 billion euros to the ESM in 2012, compared with an originally planned 4.3 billion, citing an unnamed member of the government.
The Finance Ministry said Germany's contribution would not be determined until January, although on Monday it made clear that it was open to Germany paying more than 4.3 billion euros.
The ESM will replace the current EFSF bailout fund and have an effective lending capacity of some 500 billion euros.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.