BERLIN (Reuters) – A majority of financial market experts believe that common euro zone bonds are not the right tool to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by Germany’s ZEW economic institute published on Thursday.
Only about 16% of the experts surveyed by ZEW, which included 197 Germans and six foreigners, said so-called coronabonds were the appropriate tool.
Common bonds were first proposed by Italy and won initial backing from countries like Spain, which were hit harder by the pandemic that Germany, which is against pooling euro zone debt.
European Union leaders will move on Thursday towards financing a recovery after the coronavirus pandemic by asking the European Commission to propose a fund big enough to target the most affected sectors and regions.
The ZEW survey found that a majority of financial experts believe loans from the euro zone’s European Stability Mechanism bailout fund and additional assistance from the EU budget were appropriate tools to finance a recovery.
ZEW did not say if it had asked the experts why they believe coronabonds are not an appropriate financing instrument.
(Reporting by Joseph Nasr, editing by Larry King)
