The European Central Bank set limits on accessing its bond-buying program that will exclude Greece for at least six months, raising pressure on whichever party wins Jan. 25 elections to heed the demands of official creditors.
The ECB decision locks Greece out of the quantitative-easing program until policy questions raised by the vote have been resolved. Foremost among them is the strategy of Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party is leading Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy in polls after he pledged to wring substantial concessions from the so-called troika of creditors.
