Angela Merkel

On the Euro-area economy:

The "large amount of liquidity" umped into the financial system last year, particularly to help banks, has to be "mopped up again." The euro area must use the lull in the three-year old debt crisis and avoid becoming dependent on the ECB to cover for policy makers. While the ECB has gone "to the limits of its own mandate" to defend the euro, it can only serve as a stopgap as countries across Europe tackle economic overhauls to become more competitive.