12th Mar 2015 12:26
Berlin/Athens (Alliance News) - The European Central Bank has spent almost EUR10 billion on assets under its landmark stimulus plan launched on Monday, as Greece lashed out at the ECB over what it sees as its failure to throw Athens a financial lifeline.
ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure said the bank had bought EUR9.8 billion worth of assets in just three days as part of its EUR60 billion a month quantitative easing programme.
The scheme, which is aimed warding off deflation and boosting economic growth in the fragile eurozone economy, is due to run until September 2016 when the ECB hopes consumer prices will be back in line with its annual inflation target of just below 2%.
Coeure's comments followed an interview with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, in which he criticised the ECB for what he claimed were its restrictive policies towards Greece. "The ECB in my opinion is pursuing a policy that can be considered asphyxiating toward our government," Varoufakis said in an interview aired on private Greek Mega TV late on Wednesday. Varoufakis was referring to the ECB's refusal to allow Athens to issue short-term debt as it faces a cash shortage problem.
The Greek finance minister said that the ECB's position is also aimed at the country's eurozone partners and the IMF so as to force all sides to find a solution with Greece.
Greek bonds are also not part of the Frankfurt-based ECB's new asset-purchasing scheme with bank chief Mario Draghi last week ruling out buying the nation's bonds until a review is completed of Athens' progress in meeting the reform agenda required under its bailout plan.
Coeure said he hoped Greek bonds could be eligible to be part of the ECB's bond-buying programme as soon as possible, but not before the so-called troika of ECB, European Commission and the International Monetary Fund had completed its review.
The new tension between Athens and the ECB came as the first technical teams from Greece's international creditors were scheduled to arrive in Athens to begin working through the nation's books.
The teams were due in Athens despite Greece's new hard-left government having opposed the troika returning to the country.
The troika is hated in Greece and is seen as a symbol of the nation's creditors' moves to impose painful budget cuts on the country, which is the 19-member eurozone's most heavily indebted state.
Greece and its creditors held a new round of negotiations in Brussels on Wednesday on what kind of reforms the country will have to implement in return for further bailout aid.
Both sides agreed that low-level technical teams would be in Athens to collect financial data and data relating to structural reforms.
Copyright dpa