BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted Sunday that eurozone-wide government bonds will not solve the current debt crisis and that she sees no sign of a new recession in her own country.
The financially solid German government has led opposition to “Eurobonds,” viewed by some as a logical solution to the debt crisis that has pushed up the borrowing costs of troubled countries in the 17 nations that use the euro currency.
“Solving the current crisis will not be possible with Eurobonds, and so Eurobonds are not the answer,” Mrs. Merkel said in an interview with ZDF television.
“At this point … Eurobonds are exactly the wrong answer They would lead us into a union of debt and not into a union of stability,” she said.
Mrs. Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party of Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler, has been particularly keen to stiffen the government’s resistance to Eurobonds. Mr. Roesler said over the weekend that he rules out their introduction by the current center-right coalition.
Mrs. Merkel still appears to have work to do before a parliamentary vote expected late next month to persuade her own coalition to endorse the results of last month’s eurozone crisis summit.
Leaders put together a new rescue package for Greece and agreed to expand the powers of the current $633 billion eurozone rescue fund without increasing its size.
Spectacular German growth has been key to respectable eurozone figures over the past year and half. Mrs. Merkel said she expects the economy to continue improving, despite a decline in German growth from 1.3 percent in the first quarter to an unexpectedly weak 0.1 percent in the second.
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