ECB Doesn’t Need IMF to Solve Greek Crisis

Bloomberg

Bini Smaghi Says ECB Doesn’t Need IMF to Solve Greek Crisis

February 20, 2010

By Tommaso Ebhardt

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Europe, not the International Monetary Fund, should solve the Greek deficit crisis, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi told Il Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Calling in the IMF would put the euro under the administration of an “external commissary,” he said in an article in the Italian newspaper.

Greece’s budget deficit swelled as the European Union failed to “discipline” its member with an “efficacious application” of the stability pact, Bini Smaghi said. The crisis should be an opportunity to reinforce the agreement, he added.

The ECB board member also said that Europe affirmed last week that “it wants to preserve the financial stability” of the euro area.