Lagarde confident ECB will eventually buy Greek debt

The Greek economy continues to improve and chances are rising that the European Central Bank will eventually buy its debt under its asset purchase scheme, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

"If the situation continues to improve and based on the criteria that we apply to all those purchases, I'm fairly confident that Greek bonds will become eligible as well," Lagarde told the European Parliament's committee on economic affairs.

Greek bonds are currently ineligible for purchases as they are rated 'junk' by all major rating agencies, failing a key ECB criteria.

[Reuters]