Schaeuble says global liquidity, debt complicate market turmoil

Kiel, Germany

GERMAN Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said excessive global liquidity and debt are compounding market volatility as central banks reach the limits of measures to boost growth.

A few days before Britons vote on whether to exit the European Union, Mr Schaeuble also singled out the threat of a Brexit as a geopolitical risk. Other reasons "for the high level of nervousness and volatility in the markets" include Islamist terrorism, armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and an "excess of liquidity and debt", he said. "For many authorities, there's still a great temptation to buy time with money that one doesn't have," Mr Schaeuble said at an award ceremony at the Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, Germany, on Sunday. "Fiscal and monetary policy measures have reached their limits."