Deutsche Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann today told an audience of Spanish businesspeople that "a high level of fiscal discipline is needed" if the Eurosystem's central banks are to retain their independence, adding that the European Central Bank "will not put off a necessary increase in central bank interest rates out of consideration for public finances".

Speaking at the Madrid Stock Echange, Weidmann said excessive public debt on the part of individual members of a currency union like the