ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny speaking in an interview with Austria’s Krone newspaper published today under the headline “ECB wants to prevent crisis like 1930″
- unlikely to raise interest rates from current record lows until 2016 when the Eurozone economy starts to pick up more strongly
Interest rates will turn as soon as there is clear growth, so more than 2%, but from today’s perspective that will hardly be before 2016
- in a weak economy and rising unemployment, it is the ECB’s task to create incentives for investments, which stimulate the economy
- recovery in Eurozone only showing signs of green shoots
Full interview here ( various translation sites available!)
It’s a bit premature to be talking about rate rises when the jury’s still out on QE as per Draghi’s repeated comments posted here yesterday but I guess he can only answer the questions put before him. It does, however, illustrate again how far behind the curve the Eurozone is compared to the likes of UK and US
