Comments by ECB governing council member Yves Mersch
- Economic fundamentals remain unchanged
- Slowdown was already expected, no need to consider again in policy response
- Says that slowdown does not mean economy is falling into recession
The comment on policy response suggests that the ECB is likely to leave its risk assessment unchanged in the coming meeting. But then again, this is just Mersch's own view.
The central bank meets next week on 24 January and one of the key details will be whether or not they will change their risk assessment to being "tilted to the downside" in light of a further slowdown seen in the economy from Q4 data.
