Bank of France Governor Attacks ‘Dangerous’ Italian Plans for Covid Debt Cancellation

The move comes after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s economic adviser Riccardo Fraccaro said on 26 November that European Central Bank monetary policy should support the eurozone by “cancelling sovereign bonds bought during the pandemic or perpetually extending their maturity.”

Italy and France are at loggerheads over monetary policy after the governor of the Bank of France hit back at Italian demands to cancel trillions of euros in bonds bought by the European Central Bank (ECB) this year as part of stimulus efforts designed to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on eurozone economies.

Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau said that plans to cancel the debt could backfire in an interview with Ouest France.

ECB president Christine Lagarde is also strongly opposed to any such move. “I don’t even ask myself the question – it’s as simple as that – because anything along those lines would simply be a violation” of the law.

Speaking in Rome on Thursday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, standing alongside his Italian counterpart Roberto Gualtieri noted that “a debt is paid back, that is the principle of debt”.

​The ECB has already bought bonds worth €1.35 trillion under its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). Ongoing lockdowns across Europe mean that the bank is set to buy up to a further €500 billion worth of bonds within the next few weeks.

Proposals to cancel the debt have gained some traction with French politicians. 

Arnaud Montebourg, a minister in former President Francois Hollande’s government, has said the ECB could cancel debt.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former presidential candidate who plans to run again in 2022, proposed in June to transform debts held on the central bank’s balance sheet into perpetual debt.​

Sourse: sputniknews.com