ECB's Mersch: German reservations reflected in QE's 'small print'

Reuters
Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank presents an oversized newly unveiled 10 euro note at the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, January 13, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

BERLIN (Reuters) - European Central Bank Executive Board member Yves Mersch said in an interview published on Saturday that Germany's reservations about ECB bond-buying were reflected in the "small print" of the plan to pump fresh cash into the ailing euro zone economy.

"German reservations are taken into account fully, though perhaps only when you read the small print," he told Germany's Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Mersch, honing in on one of Germany's main worries about the Quantative Easing plan announced by ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday, said it involved "no shared liability (for member states' debts), as would be the case with euro bonds".

Germany's Bundesbank had opposed the ECB's bond-buying plan and the German government voiced reservations that it removed incentives for euro zone member states to carry out the kind of structural reforms prescribed by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

(Reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Angus MacSwan)