A few months ago, Mário Centeno asked for “whatever is necessary” to save Europe from the crisis caused by the pandemic, but now he wants to go further. In the first public intervention since he took office as governor of Banco de Portugal, he pointed the way: “the 'whatever is necessary' phase should be followed by 'whatever is worth'.
In Berlin, at the Eurofi Financial Forum 2020, the ex-president of the Eurogroup and ex-finance minister warned that withdrawing monetary and budgetary stimuli “prematurely” can be “detrimental to the recovery of our economies”.
"We need to keep them for as long as necessary," he stressed, warning that even though the level of indebtedness in the countries is higher, the debt sustainability "depends on the decisions taken at this stage".
"An intelligent use of funds will allow our economies to overcome the debt problem," he said. For Mário Centeno, “at the national level, decision-makers will have to ensure that the funds will be used to finance investments and adequate reforms”, then placing the emphasis on Europe, from whom he asks for “guarantee of equal conditions between sectors and Member States”. members ”.
“It is crucial that the convergence process is not interrupted, but promoted. The absence of a solid convergence of the eurozone member states, calls into question solid and robust growth in the eurozone. That is why we need monetary and fiscal policies at the same time, ”he said, according to the speech published this Friday on the bank regulator's page.
Carlos Costa's successor stressed that all crises "involve some form of achievement", considering that the current crisis points to a "V", but "the final kilometers of this process" will be marked by "turbulence" in the labor market.
"Reallocation is accurate, but conditions must be given to increase efficiency and growth," he said, pointing out the "determining role" that the financial system will play and stressing that "the flexibility provided by supervisors must continue to be used for the concession. credit to the economy ”.
A few months ago, Mário Centeno asked for “whatever is necessary” to save Europe from the crisis caused by the pandemic, but now he wants to go further. In the first public intervention since he took office as governor of Banco de Portugal, he pointed the way: “the 'whatever is necessary' phase should be followed by 'whatever is worth'.
In Berlin, at the Eurofi Financial Forum 2020, the ex-president of the Eurogroup and ex-finance minister warned that withdrawing monetary and budgetary stimuli “prematurely” can be “detrimental to the recovery of our economies”.
"We need to keep them for as long as necessary," he stressed, warning that even though the level of indebtedness in the countries is higher, the debt sustainability "depends on the decisions taken at this stage".
"An intelligent use of funds will allow our economies to overcome the debt problem," he said. For Mário Centeno, “at the national level, decision-makers will have to ensure that the funds will be used to finance investments and adequate reforms”, then placing the emphasis on Europe, from whom he asks for “guarantee of equal conditions between sectors and Member States”. members ”.
“It is crucial that the convergence process is not interrupted, but promoted. The absence of a solid convergence of the eurozone member states, calls into question solid and robust growth in the eurozone. That is why we need monetary and fiscal policies at the same time, ”he said, according to the speech published this Friday on the bank regulator's page.
Carlos Costa's successor stressed that all crises "involve some form of achievement", considering that the current crisis points to a "V", but "the final kilometers of this process" will be marked by "turbulence" in the labor market.
"Reallocation is accurate, but conditions must be given to increase efficiency and growth," he said, pointing out the "determining role" that the financial system will play and stressing that "the flexibility provided by supervisors must continue to be used for the concession. credit to the economy ”.