Central banker refuses to accept role of ‘external saviour’ to euro

The European Central Bank president Mario Draghi yesterday said there was “no external saviour” for heavily indebted governments in the 17-nation eurozone, suggesting the bank was not ready to step in and support their finances.

Investors had hoped the ECB would increase its support for financially weak countries such as Italy with bigger purchases of their government bonds.

But in a speech in Berlin, Mr Draghi said: “I will never be tired of saying the first response ought to emanate from the country. There is no external saviour for a country that doesn’t want to save itself.

“The crisis has not ended yet. It is now important not to lose momentum and to swiftly implement all those decisions that have been taken to put the euro area economy back on course.”

Following criticism of last week’s EU summit’s deal, banker Mr Draghi defended it claiming it had drawn “comments that were more negative than it deserved”.