Bank of England's Carney says more euro zone risk sharing in German interest - Irish Times
LONDON (Reuters) - Greater public and private risk sharing across the euro zone would stand to benefit Germany as much as any other country in the currency union, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.
"These types of issues building greater private risk sharing and greater public risk sharing are as much in the interest of German people as they are in any constituent part of the euro zone," Carney told the Irish Times.
On Wednesday, Carney in a speech urged the euro zone to take the controversial step of turning its currency area into a fiscal union in order to escape its slow-growth debt trap - a call likely to be rebuffed by Germany.
Carney also praised the European Central Bank for the "boldness" of its plan announced last week to buy hundreds of billions of euros of government bonds to fight the "potentially dangerous" combination of weak growth and falling prices.
He told the Irish Times that it was "incredibly important" that there was "unanimity across all the governors at the ECB about the legitimacy of the instrument".
Carney would not comment on the prospect that Britain might face a referendum on its membership of the European Union, one of the pledges of the ruling Conservative Party ahead of a May 7 national election.
"I'm not going to prejudge any political outcomes. I would say from the perspective of the Bank of England, we accept realities on the ground which is that we are a member of the EU. We work closely with our European partners ... and it's a very successful partnership."
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
