ROME (Reuters) – Joint debt issuance is a possible euro zone response to tackle the coronavirus emergency, Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily on Thursday.
“Not necessarily, but I do not exclude it. There is a proposal to use the European budget and one to issue common debt (instruments). And one does not exclude the other,” Centeno said when asked whether eurobonds could be issued to finance the European recovery from the virus crisis.
Centeno said that part of the funds needed by member states to relaunch their economies had to be made available by late spring or early summer and that gross domestic product in the European Union would not return to 2019 levels before two years.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; editing by Valentina Za)
