Eurozone chief considering possible scenarios in case of UK exit from EU

BRUSSELS, June 16 (KUNA) -- The President of the 19-member Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem has expressed concern over the outcome of the UK referendum on EU membership due to 23 June but he underlined that they are ready to deal with any shocks.
"We are concerned. We are following it closely and considering possible scenarios," Dijsselbloem told a press conference after the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the EU's bailout fund, in Luxembourg on Thursday.
However, he stressed that there is no plan B and no plans to change their policy on financial stability or fiscal policy.
"We have a strong setup and we are in a much, much better situation than we were some years ago to deal with any shocks that might occur," stressed Dijsselbloem, who is also the Chairman of the ESM Board of Governors.
"We hope and trust on the wisdom of the British people," he added.
Meanwhile, the Board of Governors of ESM held its fourth Annual Meeting today at the ESM's offices in Luxembourg and approved the ESM Annual Report for 2015. The Board of Governors comprises the 19 euro area finance ministers.
Today, the ministers discussed the development of the ESM and its key activities over the past year.
On his part, ESM Managing Director Klaus Regling told the press conference that "the past year has confirmed that our strategy of providing loans in exchange for reforms is working well. Four of our five program countries are now success stories." After Ireland, Spain and Portugal, Cyprus became the fourth country to successfully conclude its financial assistance program in March 2016. Greece is expected to return to economic growth in the second half of 2016, he noted.
"Where we are really different from the IMF is that we do not get money for our loans from member countries or central banks but we regularly have to go to the market to issue bills and bonds," said Regling who visited the Gulf region last May to seek investments. The ESM has a total subscribed capital of approximately 700 billion euro , which comprises 80 billion euro in paid-in capital and 620 billion euro in committed callable capital. The ESM's maximum lending capacity is 500 billion euro.(end) nk.msa