Jan 17 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has already done a lot to ease the crisis in the euro zone and providing more liquidity will not fix the underlying problems, the Bank of England's governor Mervyn King said on Tuesday.
King said it was ultimately up to governments of the nations in the single currency zone to resolve the crisis.
King also told a parliament committee during a hearing on Tuesday that less attention should be paid to rating agencies and the markets' muted reaction to the downgrade of France's credit rating by Standard & Poor's was "encouraging".
"The European Central Bank can't on its own change the underlying problems which are a challenge to the euro area which are loss of competitiveness and current account deficits," King said.
"Creating yet another liquidity facility buys more time but we have bought a lot of time over the last two years and it's hard to argue that the time that was bought has been used productively," he said.
"The European Central Bank can do so much but no more. In the end, it has to be a question for the governments of the euro area," he said.
The collapse last week of talks between Greece and its private-sector creditors, as well as Standard & Poor's downgrade to France's credit rating, are the most recent signs that the crisis is deepening and spreading to the euro zone's core.
