Euro could collapse without ECB bond guarantee – Italy’s right-wing Northern League party
Italy’s ruling Northern League party predicts the dismantling of the euro unless the European Central Bank (ECB) offers a guarantee to reduce yield spreads in the eurozone.
"The situation can’t be resolved and it is going to explode,” the economics spokesman of Italy’s ruling Northern League party, Claudio Borghi, told Reuters. His words come after Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese government bond yields rose following the financial turmoil surrounding Turkey.
“Either the ECB offers a guarantee or the euro will be dismantled,” he said. The right-wing Northern League party forms a coalition with the co-ruling 5-Star Movement.
A bond yield spread is the difference between yields on differing debt instruments. Typically, the higher risk a bond carries, the higher its yield spread. In other words, if a country’s economy is strong, its bond would carry less risk and the yield would be lower.
Since the 2008 global crisis, differences between euro area countries have become more pronounced, as the spreads of some countries (especially Ireland and Greece) widened much more than those of other countries (such as France and the Netherlands).
“Today the ECB has the power to make you lose your debt and get on your knees. It should be ensured that the Central Bank intervenes as soon as the spread between the securities of two European countries reaches two hundred,” Borghi said back in July.
Eurosceptic Borghi, a top economic adviser for the Northern League, was named the head of the budget committee in the Italian parliament’s lower house this June. Borghi, a former Deutsche Bank trader, is acknowledged for the proposal of Italy’s short-term treasury bills, a form of parallel currency or even a temporary form of payment to be used in a transitional period if the country ditches the euro.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
