ECB's QE program to exclude Greece

The European Central Bank has devised a bond-buying program that will be acceptable to Germany, which has voiced deep reservations about the measure, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

In the past, Germany has made no secret of its objections to a contested program of so-called quantitative easing ? or sovereign bond purchases ? which the ECB is planning to help prevent the eurozone from slipping into deflation, possibly as early as next week.

German government officials, as well as the head of the central bank or Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, have repeatedly voiced concern about such a program.

A ceiling of 20-25 percent will be set on how much a central bank can buy of a government?s debt, Der Spiegel said, without revealing its sources.

Furthermore, crisis-hit Greece will not participate in the scheme because its sovereign debt does not fulfill the necessary quality criteria, the report said.

[AFP]