MADRID: Spain's economy chief said Monday he believes the European Central Bank will act over the euro crisis, which has sent borrowing costs spiralling and put Madrid on the brink of a bailout.
"I think the ECB knows perfectly well what the problem is with the euro and that it will act in consequence," Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told Onda Cero radio.
De Guindos noted that the bank for the 17 nations in the single currency had already said it could intervene on the open market to buy the sovereign bonds of troubled member states such as Spain.
In early August, the ECB suggested it could start unlimited buying of stricken member states' bonds to drive down their crippling borrowing costs, following trouble in Spain and Italy.
The ECB "may undertake outright open market operations of a size adequate to reach its objective," its chief Mario Draghi said, although he said countries should be implementing agreed fiscal adjustments under a rescue programme.
Draghi is due to say more about new measures to fight the debt crisis on September 6 in Frankfurt after a meeting of ECB governors, who set the bank's monetary policy.
