The omicron variant of Covid-19 must inflict significant damage on the euro-area economy for European Central Bank Governing Council member Martins Kazaks to back additional stimulus. It’s too early to tell how the new strain will affect the continent’s recovery, according to Kazaks, who heads Latvia’s central bank. As things stand, the ECB’s 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) emergency bond-buying program -- known as PEPP -- should end as scheduled in March, he said. “At the current moment, we don’t know how the omicron variant will develop,” Kazaks said in an interview. “Unless it spills over into significant and ... (full story)