BERLIN: Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann believes jointly issued euro bonds could one day be possible but only once the bloc's 17 member states have completly integrated their economic policies, he told a German newspaper in an interview.
In a preview of comments to be published in Saturday's Berliner Zeitung, Weidmann, who is also a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, did not rule out euro bonds, but the newspaper did not provide an exact quote.
"But they (the politicians) should consider that only at the end of an integration process," he said. "That means common control over member states' budgets, including the right to intervene if states break agreed rules."
Weidmann said he did not believe that core European nations were at danger from the euro zone debt crisis and was optimistic Italy can cope with bond yields currently over 7 percent.
"Neither France nor Austria are wobbling and their interest rates aren't unusually high against historical levels," he said.
"German government bonds will be sought after by the markets as ever, because Germany has a convincing stability policy," he said, advising against "over-interpreting" Wednesday's bond auction which saw the lowest demand since the birth of the euro.
Weidmann said it was wrong to portray Italy as being on the edge of bankruptcy, saying that "as soon as 10-year bond yields go up somewhere, people predict the end of the world."
He was "optimistic that Italian can cope with rates over 7 percent for a while."
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