‘Berlin hawks scare the markets’

After the German Constitutional Court on June 11 started debating the legitimacy of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Outright Monetary Transaction (OMT) plan to purchase bonds of struggling Eurozone members, the Milan stock exchange lost 1.63 per cent and Italian bond yields were back on the rise, Il Sole reports.

The Italian economic daily denounces Germany’s shortsightedness in trying to block ECB president Mario Draghi’s plan to relieve Europe from its current dangerous illiquidity, and accuses the Bundesbank of inflation “hypochondria”.

In a separate analysis, Il Sole notes that the Court’s attack on the ECB may become a “farce” as its legal grounds are shaky, adding that it hopes that the debate will lead to more independence for Frankfurt.