Spend more if you want ECB to raise rates, Draghi tells governments

Euro zone governments can help the European Central Bank raise interest rates sooner if they loosen their own purse strings to support the economy, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday.

Draghi, who will step down at the end of the month, was likely taking aim at critics of the ECB’s easy policy in cash-rich countries such as Germany, where the government is still running a budget surplus despite a stagnating economy.

The ECB has become engulfed in its biggest public spat in years after Draghi forced through a resumption of the bank’s 2.6 trillion euro bond-buying program last month despite opposition