Einem Financial Times Bericht zufolge hat die EZB Freitag Nacht beschlossen, dem Markt kommende Woche zusätzliche Liquiditätsspritzen in unbekannter Höhe zur Verfügung zu stellen - klingt alles nicht sonderlich vertrauenserweckend, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass nun plötzlich auch davon die Rede ist, dass die ganze Krise auch im Euro-Raum negative Auswirkungen auf die Konjunktur haben könnte. Nun, ich gehe fest davon, dass das so kommen wird - aber auch hier: das war vor einigen Monaten schon absehbar und nicht erst jetzt! Für mich stellt sich eigentlich nur noch die Frage, wie schlimm wird es werden - und nicht mehr: "wird es schlimm werden"?
ECB set to pump cash into money markets
By Ralph Atkins and Ivar Simensen in Frankfurt and David Oakley in London
Published: November 23 2007 11:46 | Last updated: November 23 2007 11:46
Fresh emergency action to pump funds into the money markets was announced on Friday night by the European Central Bank amid renewed fears that liquidity in the credit markets is again starting to dry up.
On Friday night, the bank said it would inject an unspecified amount of extra liquidity next week, noting “re-emerging tensions” – and would do so until at least the end of the year.
Earlier, Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, had pledged continuing action to keep short-term money market interest rates in line with its main policy rate.
The new promise of intervention came as three-month US interbank rates rose for the eighth day in a row to 5.04 per cent, more than half a point higher than the US Fed Funds target rate of 4.5 per cent.
Three-month money usually trades just above the Fed Funds rate which is 4.5 per cent. Europe and UK money markets are showing similar strains.
Continuing problems in the markets were highlighted again on Friday as key interest-rate indicators hit fresh highs while the dollar plumbed new lows against the euro, falling to a record low of $1.4966.
The credit squeeze is also showing signs of dragging down eurozone economic growth, according to a closely watched survey published on Friday.
Service business growth in the 13-country eurozone slumped to the weakest level for more than two years, according to November’s purchasing managers’ indices, almost certainly because of financial sector weakness.
The eurozone’s services sector slowdown was “particularly relevant as it has been the engine of growth of the euro area on the past two years”, said Jacques Cailloux, economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, which releases the survey with NTC Economics.
The latest data will knock European policymakers’ confidence that the eurozone can remain relatively immune from the US subprime mortgage crisis, although few economists expect a serious slump.
Mr Trichet hinted that he expected financial turmoil to result in structural changes, saying banks’ losses “may trigger a reassessment by some of them of the suitability of the so-called originate-and-distribute business model”, which relies heavily on loan securitisation.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
