ECB should mull more bond buying

Guy Quaden, a former European Central Bank governing council member, said the ECB should consider expanding its purchases of sovereign bonds now that the euro area is cracking down on budget deficits, Le Soir reported.

“The ECB should perhaps contemplate intervening in a more resolute manner,” Quaden, who retired as Belgian central bank governor in March, told the Brussels-based paper in an interview published on Saturday. The ECB, which began buying government bonds on the secondary market in May 2010, has said the program is “limited.”

Four days after Jens Weidmann, who heads Germany’s Bundesbank, said he is “not a fan” of the ECB’s bond purchases and its policy makers are becoming more skeptical about the program, Quaden also told Le Soir that the ECB should be independent “not only vis-à-vis governments, but also vis-à-vis the Bundesbank.”