ECB Bond Buying Not Needed With Economy Improving, Weidmann Says

An improving euro-area economy shows the European Central Bank’s government bond-purchase program isn’t needed, Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said.

“I remain unconvinced that the macroeconomic situation really warrants” quantitative easing, Weidmann, who heads Germany’s Bundesbank, said at the release of the institution’s annual report in Frankfurt on Thursday. “One especially problematic aspect is that the massive government-bond purchases will make the Eurosystem central banks the biggest creditors of the euro-area member countries. Fiscal policy and monetary policy will become even more closely entwined.”