Bundesbank opposes more emergency funding for Greece

The head of Germany's Bundesbank has said that he is opposed to more emergency funding for Greece, accusing Athens of gambling away "a lot of trust".

Speaking to the weekly Focus magazine Jens Weidmann said: "Until the autumn, an improvement in the economy had been discernible. But the new government has gambled away a lot of trust."

“I am opposed to an increase in the emergency loans,” Mr Weidmann, who also sits on the European Central Bank’s decision-making governing council, said.

In a separate speech, he also warned debt in the euro zone had entered the “danger zone” and called for banks’ exposure to the debt of individual countries to be capped.

“In the euro area we are already in the danger zone - at least with regard to public debt standing at 91 per cent and corporate debt at 105 per cent,” Jens Weidmann said in the text of a speech to be delivered at a conference in Frankfurt.

“Sovereign debt needs to be backed by capital, and exposure to a single sovereign must be capped, just as is the case for any private debtor,” he added.