European Central Bank policy makers will get their first chance on Wednesday to hear directly on the outsized crisis emanating from one of their smallest member states.
Latvia -- 0.2 percent of the euro-area economy and 0.6 percent of the bloc’s population -- is the week’s hot topic as ECB President Mario Draghi chairs one of the Governing Council’s regular meetings in Frankfurt. The detention on bribery allegations of the nation’s central-bank governor, Ilmars Rimsevics, isn’t on the formal agenda, according to a euro-area official who asked not to be identified. But it’s guaranteed to be a talking point, at least over dinner.