Debate on ECB monetary normalisation rages in Germany
Wednesday 26 May 2021 – Vol.12 Ed.21.3
Commentary: Pressure building on Bundesbank over ECB asset purchase plans
By David Marsh in London
Pressure is mounting on the German Bundesbank to seek to head off further expansion of ECB asset purchases, as anxiety deepens in Germany about economic overheating and higher inflation in the US and Europe. Behind-the-scenes ECB wrangling, likely to surface at the next governing council meeting on 10 June, could expose the 22-year-old single currency to one of its greatest tests as Europe emerges at disparate speeds from the pandemic.
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Commentary: Germany’s curious austerity debate
By Mark Sobel in Washington
German politicians and commentators are engaged in a back and forth about what to do in a post-Covid world and the now suspended constitutional debt brake. It is a curious debate with echoes of austerity that may appeal to a German public known for its conservativism, but one that also flies in the face of today’s economic realities. Moving to reinstate the debt brake and shifting towards a less accommodative monetary policy is not the way forward for Germany, Europe or the international community.
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