adminWolfgang Schaeuble, detailing a proposal he will make at a European Union summit on 9 December, told the Passauer Neue Presse that a total of 500 billion euros (£429 billion) would need to go into the German fund.
“We need a redemption fund in every single country of the euro zone,” he told the newspaper in comments released on Saturday.
Tax revenues should be used to support the funds, Schaeuble said, adding that Germany would not need to raise taxes to implement the plan.
“Around 500 billion euros needs to be stored in the fund. This affects federal, state and municipal debt,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes Schaeuble’s proposal could help restore confidence in the euro, her spokesman said on Friday.
“The chancellor welcomes the proposal of introducing national redemption funds as very interesting,” Steffen Seibert told a news conference.
Merkel has ruled out the idea of common euro zone debt issuance as a way to restore confidence in the currency bloc and Schaeuble again underlined Germany’s opposition in the newspaper interview.
“There cannot be euro bonds. The German economy would be overburdened should we have to guarantee the debts of all the states. On top of this, the necessary pressure on countries to sort out their national debt problems would fall by the wayside.
If all were to keep to the stability criteria, then the problem is solved by itself.”
Asked whether the European Central Bank’s recent bond buying activities could increase inflation risks, Schaeuble said there was no reason to fear this.
“Serious economists see neither risk nor signs of inflation dangers. The euro is stable, inside and out.”
He also rejected the idea of kicking Greece out of the euro zone as a way to help end the crisis.
“We can’t just show states the door if they have difficulties. Also, the economic consequences would be totally unforeseeable were one or more countries to leave the euro zone. The vast majority say that this would be the worst of all developments.”
Meanwhile, the eurozone crisis will continue to hamper African countries’ trade and economic growth because of the continent’s dependence on exporting to European markets, the World Trade Organisation chief said on Saturday.
“The European economic slowdown is a problem for Africa,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told a news conference on the margins of an African Union conference for trade ministers in the Ghanaian capital.
Lamy said there could be a significant decline in the growth of African economies if the euro zone crisis continued to worsen.
“Africa is still dependent on trade with Europe, which is its first trade partner,” Lamy said. “The order of magnitude in what you find in economic research is that -1 percent for Europe’s growth equals -0.5 percent for Africa’s growth.”
Trade between the 27-nation European Union, the world’s largest trading zone, and its former colonies stood at 278 billion euros in 2008, according to the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat.
The euro zone comprises 17 EU member states.
African countries export commodities and other raw materials including timber, tobacco, cocoa, cut flowers and oil to Europe, as well as textiles, while importing finished products including machinery, chemicals and vehicles.
Lamy said African countries needed to focus on intraregional trade to mitigate the impacts of the crisis.
“I have no doubt that it will impact Africa’s growth in years to come, which is one of the reasons why Africa has to try and become more dependent on other sources of trade than the EU market,” Lamy said. — Reuters.
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