Draghi asset-purchase plan seen falling short: survey

Frankfurt

MARIO Draghi's latest strategy for the euro area is failing to win over economists.

More than 60 per cent of the respondents in Bloomberg's monthly survey say that the European Central Bank president's plan to steer its balance sheet towards early-2012 levels is set to fall short and a growing number predict he'll resort to large-scale government-bond buying. Two-thirds are unhappy with the lack of details for an asset-purchase programme that will start this month after the ECB declined to say how big it will be.

The survey points to possible battles ahead in the Governing Council with some officials already opposing the plan to buy asset-backed securities (ABS) and covered bonds. At the International Monetary Fund's annual meetings in Wa…