Foreign
EUROGROUP chief, Paschal Donohoe, says that banks in the eurozone are now better positioned after past turmoil shook the global banking sector.
EU leaders set to discuss the bloc’s finances in Brussels on Friday.
“We have the reserves and the resilience to ensure the stability of our banking system at the moment,” said Donohoe, currently head of the group of eurozone finance ministers.
He dismissed concerns over the implications of the recent collapse of Swiss bank m,Credit Suisse and other smaller banks.
Donohoe, who was arriving on the second day of a two-day meeting of EU leaders, credited a series of policy decisions taken in response to the 2008 financial crisis.
“But we can never be complacent,” Donohoe added, calling for more work to be done, for example, on legislation to protect bank deposits.
European Central Bank (ECB) President ,Christine Lagarde, is joining EU leaders to discuss the fiscal situation in the eurozone after repeated interest rate hikes in a bid to lower inflation.
He said high living costs were also high on the agenda, as inflation, while improving, still remained at near record highs.
The sharp cut in Russian gas supplies, viewed as retaliation for EU sanctions imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, has sent energy prices soaring and led to fears of a recession.
Donohoe said there were indications that inflation was spreading beyond the energy sector, with prices for food and services staying at high levels or increasing further.
He reiterated his call on fellow euro finance ministers to tailor their public support measures in a bid to bring down prices.
Reforming the bloc’s usually strict debt and deficit rules after their suspension to cushion the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine was also discussed. (dpa/NAN)
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Tags: Paschal Donohoe
