Weidmann Tells Financial Times ECB Monetary Policy Stance Is ‘Appropriate’

European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said the bank’s policy stance is “appropriate” after officials reduced interest rates this month, the Financial Times reported, citing an interview.

Weidmann said he’s “confident that Italy will be able to deliver” on fiscal reforms, the FT cited him as saying. “The euro zone as a whole is not at stake” as a result of the persistent debt crisis in the region, Weidmann said.

The ECB won’t help Italy by defining a maximum bond yield and defending it through purchases, Weidmann said. “Fixing an interest rate for a country is certainly not compatible with our mandate,” he was quoted as saying. “You would guarantee a certain refinancing cost for a government and you could not argue that this was not monetary financing,” Weidmann said, according to an interview transcript posted on the newspaper’s website.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jana Randow at jrandow@bloomberg.net