Head of ECB bows out as term comes to an end
As the financial crisis continues to sweep the world, Jean-Claude Trichet says goodbye to European Central Bank.
The eurozone’s top banker has come to the end of his term as European Central Bank [ECB] chief – just as the area’s major economies have agreed a plan to end the debt crisis.
Jean-Claude Trichet has a legacy of resisting pressure for the ECB to be turned into a super-lender for indebted states.
On the current economic crisis he said: “It is a global crisis and I would say that it’s an ongoing process, an ongoing process of structural adjustment at a global level.
“So, I would say it calls for permanent attention, for credible alertness as I used to say, and I would not embark on qualification of where we are exactly in this process. It’s an ongoing process.”
His replacement is Mario Draghi, previously governor of the Bank of Italy.
Draghi has suggested the ECB will keep buying up the bonds of troubled states, like his own country.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports.