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novembro 29, 2004
ECB chief Trichet warns euro is not an EU shortcut for eastern Europe
Fonte: France Press
European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet warned southeast European countries they could not unilaterally adopt the euro to get around European Union membership criteria in the Maastricht treaty.
Speaking to a conference hosted by the Austrian central bank, Trichet acknowledged that "Southastern Europe is a region where one can see the use of the euro in all dimensions".
He added: "But these countries aiming at EU accession cannot use unilateral 'euroisation' as a way of circumventing the stages foreseen by the (Maastricht) treaty establishing the European Community for the adoption of the euro.
"As a financing currency, euro denominated debt is regularly issued by the countries of the region which also often make use of the euro as an anchor, reserve and intervention currency for their monetary and exchange rate frameworks.
"The euro is also being increasingly used as an invoicing currency in the international trade of the countries in the region," the ECB chief noted.
"In the case of Bulgaria, we have seen that while 37 percent of Bulgarian exports were invoiced in euro in 2000, the figure had risen to 61 percent in 2003."
Over the same time, total Bulgarian exports to eurozone countries accounted for 42 percent in 2000, but only 51 percent in 2003, he said.
Trichet expressed concern that southeast European countries, where per capital revenue is only 26 percent that of the European average last year, could see higher inflation if their economies were not brought into line.
"The challenge is to avoid that temporary spikes in the inflation rate translate into increases in inflationary expectations," he said, apparently referring to an economic mechanism whereby anticipation of inflation by consumers and businesses in their buying and investment decisions can accelerate inflation.
"It is crucial to consolidate a culture of price stability, buttressed by independent central banks," he added.
He noted that "current account deficits have increased over the last three years and stood, for the region as a whole above eight percent of the gross domestic product in 2003," mainly because consumers bought more foreign goods.
"While these deficits may partly stem from a natural and welcome recapitalisation of the economies in the region, fast credit growth may have contributed to exarcerbating the current account deficits in a number of countries."
"It is clear that authorities in the region have, in number of cases, to take steps to avoid credit growth that may be too fast"
Publicado por esta às novembro 29, 2004 02:28 PM