Draghi kicks recovery ball back into states’ court

ECB President Mario Draghi trumpeted the European Central Bank’s success in restoring confidence in Europe’s monetary union on the 8 March 2012, making clear that responsibility for further action lay with governments and banks – while the ECB fretted about oil price-driven inflation risks.

Two ECB offers of unlimited, three-year liquidity, which saw the central bank, providing more than €1tn to eurozone banks in 2011 and early 2012, had achieved 'great progress', said the ECB president. Investors had returned to the eurozone and signs were emerging of lending to the real economy picking up.

ESO: Background information: Southern discomfort fuels German unease http://www.europeansources.info/record/southern-discomfort-fuels-german-unease/

ECB: Press release, 8.3.12: Introductory statement to the press conference: Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB, Frankfurt am Main, 8 March 2012 http://www.ecb.int/press/pressconf/2012/html/is120308.en.html

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