“There are no limits to our commitment to the euro.”The move is a godsend for euro zone governments, who will have to borrow hundreds of billions of euro in debt markets in the comings months to fight Covid-19’s assault on their health systems and economies. But Draghi could argue that he was not financing governments, as countries across Europe – including Ireland – were reining in budget deficits. In addition, the ECB signalled that it is prepared to ease a requirement to only buy bonds in proportion to the size of each individual euro zone economy. This will be a relief to southern European governments, and, to a lesser extent, Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). European solidarity was a real casualty in the handling of the euro zone debt crisis earlier this decade, contributing to a rise in populism and eurosceptism across many countries.

Source: The Irish Times March 20, 2020 16:35 UTC