ECB Paramo:Steps Taken By Greece Improve Its Prospects:Press 9  MAR   FRANKFURT - The measures announced last Friday by Greece to restore soundness to its fiscal affairs are promising for the country's outlook and should be seen that way by observers, European Central Bank Executive Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said in an interview published Wednesday. FRANKFURT (MNI) - The measures announced last Friday by Greece to restore soundness to its fiscal affairs are promising for the country's outlook and should be seen that way by observers, European Central Bank Executive Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said in an interview published Wednesday. Paramo told Spanish business daily Expansion that the measures "improve the prospects of the Greek economy and its future" and "are convincing for the ECB, for the IMF and for the European Commission." "We trust that this is so in the eyes of all those observers who are following Greece's situation," he continued. "This means that the return of confidence as these measures are implemented will eliminate many of the tensions weighing on the Greek situation." As for the role of the International Monetary Fund, Paramo conceded that the "the IMF is very competent from the technical point of view and this experience is being used in analyzing the situation, but this is the best contribution that the Fund can make, because the responsibility for the future belongs to the totality of the countries of the Eurozone, and in matters related to specific measures, to Greece specifically." Paramo stressed the importance, driven home by the crisis, of using good economic times to create fiscal maneuvering room in order to better deal with shocks when they arrive. He cited Spain as a country that had done this. The crisis underscores that it is necessary to "reinforce the coordination of fiscal policies so that the reaction to these kinds of imbalances does not differ much in time," Paramo said. A country that consistently exhibits much higher inflation than average for the area is in an unsustainable situation because of the associated loss of competitiveness, he warned. To avoid a repeat of the Greek situation, in which entry to the eurozone was secured on the basis of false data, "we have to [be able to] count on statistics developed on the basis of a clear independence," Paramo insisted. He dismissed as just "another rumor" reports that the ECB might create the first European ratings agency. --Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email: dbarwick@marketnews.com [TOPICS: MT$$$$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$] 3/9/2010 6:41:00 PM