`Worst of Eurozone crisis is over'

Frankfurt, March 23 (IANS) The worst of the Eurozone crisis is over and the situation is stabilizing, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi has been quoted as saying.

Draghi made the remarks during an interview with the Bild newspaper in Germany, citing that investor confidence is returning and the ECB has suspended its Securities Market Programme that enabled it buy government bonds on the secondary market for weeks.

Draghi was also quoted as saying that some economic data, including inflation and current account and budget deficits shows that Europe has fared better than the US, Xinhua reported.

However, he also cautioned that there are still risks and reiterated that the ball is in the court of various governments. He said that the governments must make the Eurozone crisis-proof for the long-term.

With regard to two tenders of the non-standard three-year longer-term refinancing operations (LTRO), Draghi said the ECB paid close attention to the fact that the fight against the crisis and credit crunch with the injection of liquidity does not push the inflation rate higher.

The ECB has loaned over 1 trillion euros ($1.32 trillion) to banks through two LTRO rounds. Draghi has earlier said the first LTRO, which was conducted in December, helped avert a major credit crunch.