MNI POLICY: ECB Support "Knows No Limits" - De Guindos

By Luke Heighton

     FRANKFURT (MNI) - The ECB "can always do more," Vice-President Luis De

Guindos said in an interview Friday, and will act with "extreme intensity" to

ensure the Covid-19 pandemic does not result in either a financial or a debt

crisis.

     Nevertheless, the economic impact of the"huge health crisis [...] will be

enormous," De Guindos said, adding: "We just hope that it will be temporary."

     Here are key points from his interview with Telediario 2:

     --The ECB "will not allow [...] fragmentation of any kind in the sovereign

debt markets and a return to the nightmare caused by widened spreads," De

Guindos said.

     --"We are going to ensure that it does not result in some kind of financial

crisis or debt crisis," he continued. "We can always do more [...] The ECB's

commitment "knows no limits. "We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that

this pandemic, which is having a massive economic impact, does not turn into a

debt crisis or a crisis of the financial system. We will not allow this to

happen. We are dealing with a situation which requires us to act with extreme

intensity." 

     --Asked whether the crisis might "take its toll on the European project,"

De Guindos replied: "Let's hope not. The ECB has already acted. Basically what

remains is for member states also to act and continue to act through their

fiscal policies. And we need a pan-European response. We need a coordinated EU

fiscal policy response. I am sure that this is what will happen in the end."

--MNI Frankfurt Bureau; +49-69-720-146; email: luke.heighton@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; +44 203 865 3829; email: jason.webb@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$X$$$,MT$$$$,M$$EC$]