ECB's Lautenschlaeger does not see bond-buying: paper

Reuters
Sabine Lautenschlaeger, executive board member of the European Central bank (ECB), looks on during the Bundesbank Banking Congress "Symposium on Financial Stability and the Role of Central Banks" in Frankfurt, February 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank executive board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger said she does not see the ECB embarking on a bond-buying spree in the near future, according to a German newspaper report. "I absolutely do not see the purchase of government bonds on the horizon," she told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, according to an excerpt of an article to be published on Sunday. She said a large-scale purchase of bonds would only be an option if the ECB faced extraordinary risks, adding: "I really don't see that right now". She also repeated that she was "rather critical" of the ECB's Outright Monetary Transaction (OMT) programme, launched in September 2012 and yet to be used. (This story corrects name in headline) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Stephen Brown)