Europen Central Bank help to ease the economic crisis

The president of the European Central Bankgave a guardedly upbeat assessment of the situation in the euro zone Thursday, saying that troubled countries had made"significant progress" remaking their economies and that the banking system was healthier. "So, not bad," Mario Draghi said, with an airof distinct satisfaction, at a press conference in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana following a meeting ofthe bank's governing council. But, perhaps wary of seeming too optimisticand encouraging complacency by elected officials, he added that the state ofthe euro zone remained tenuous. Early this year, Mr. Draghi also called a turning point in the crisis, only to see tensions return with a vengeance later on.After a period of intense activity to calm the euro zone crisis, the E.C.B. had not been expected toannounce major newpolicy actions Thursday. And, as expected, the bank left its benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.75 percent. Instead, the focus hasbeen on elected leaders, and particularly whether Spain will meet conditions for the E.C.B. to start buying its bonds as a way of restarting bank lending in the country. Mr. Draghi asserted that the E.C.B.'s promise to buy bonds in so-called Outright Monetary Transactions had"helped to alleviate tensions" in the markets. He added that the bond purchases, oncethey begin, "will enable us to provide, under appropriate conditions, a fully effective backstop to avoid destructive scenarios with potentially severe challenges for price stability in the euro area."