In an interview with Reuters, Wunsch, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said that ‘[w]hat has been saved in 2020 and in the beginning of 2021 would be enough to finance growth in private consumption above the level of 2019 for three, four or five years.’
7 April 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Wunsch, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said that monetary policy ‘inflection points need to be handled with care, we’ve seen that with the taper tantrum’.
7 April 2021
‘Containment measures over the past few months have been stricter than anticipated and they will likely stay so in the near future’, Weidmann told Reuters news agency. ‘This has reduced the likelihood that the growth rate of 3% projected in December can still be achieved this year.’
6 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The pandemic remains a threat to economic recovery, but various factors support the anticipation of substantial improvement starting in the second half of this year, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Tuesday.
6 April 2021
The stable monthly result masked an increase of 48,000 unemployed persons in the region from January to February. There were 1.507 million more unemployed people in the euro area in February 2021 than in February 2020.
6 April 2021
In an interview with Financial Times, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, said that vaccinations rather than monetary or fiscal policy were ‘[t]he main instrument we have at the moment’, but that ‘close international co-operation within the G20’ was needed ‘to avoid that the different stages of the vaccination campaign in the various countries result in excessive divergences of the respective economies.’
4 April 2021
In a blog post on the website of the ECB, Lane, who is also chief economist, said that ‘the increase in inflation during 2021 can be best interpreted as the unwinding of disinflationary forces that took hold in 2020 and does not constitute the basis for a sustained shift in inflation dynamics.’
1 April 2021
The projected increase in euro area inflation this year is due chiefly to ‘special effects’, he said in comments to the International Club of Frankfurt Economic Journalists, and the upward trend in subsequent years could turn out even weaker than thought. However, stronger-than-expected developments are also possible, he said, citing the effect of higher commodity prices on intermediate goods.
1 April 2021
In its quarterly bulletin for 2Q 2021, the central bank noted that Ireland’s general government balance had gone from a surplus of 0.9% to a deficit of almost 9% of modified gross national income last year.
1 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – It will be quite some time until the European Central Bank needs to think about a possible need to tighten its monetary policy stance, ECB President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday.
31 March 2021
The number of unemployed decreased by 8,000 in March, following +9,000 in February and -37,000 in January. The unemployment rate was down 0.1 point to 6.0%.
31 March 2021
According to the Report of the Governor to the Ordinary Meeting of Shareholders of Banca d’Italia, which he heads, Visco said that ‘[t]he start of vaccination campaigns in Italy and the rest of the world leads to cautious optimism for the future.’
31 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Wednesday observed that many American economists felt that the U.S. fiscal stimulus could result in economic overheating.
31 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The latest increase in inflation in the Eurozone’s largest economy comes as anything but a surprise at the European Central Bank. Even so, monetary authorities may be holding their breath to see what follows.
30 March 2021
The increase was the highest since 1.7% in February of last year and represented a renewed acceleration of prices after January’s 1.0% and February’s 1.3% were preceded by negative readings in each of the last four months of last year. On the month, German CPI in March came in at 0.5%.
30 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The German Finance Agency on Tuesday announced that the federal government’s issuance plan for 2Q was being adjusted to reflect the adoption of a supplementary budget.
30 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Now is the time for the EU to take yet bolder fiscal measures to ensure the economic recovery, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Monday.
29 March 2021
In a speech at a breakfast meeting, de Cos , who heads Banco de España, said that the ECB’s recent decisions led him ‘to emphasize the importance of maintaining a high degree of monetary accommodation so that fiscal policy can, in turn, continue to maintain a very high degree of support for the economy until a solid recovery has been guaranteed.’
29 March 2021
In a speech at a digital workshop organised by The European House − Ambrosetti, Lane, who is also chief economist, said that ‘there is a clear risk of self-fulfilling adverse dynamics taking hold through which uncertain economic prospects induce households, firms and governments to hold back on expenditure plans, leading to a decline in overall demand that validates the loss in confidence about the future.’
27 March 2021
In an interview with German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Scholz said, ‘The only way out of this pandemic is through vaccination - but until enough citizens have been vaccinated, we have to do a lot more testing in order to detect chains of infection at an early stage, and we have to continue to massively reduce our contacts.’
27 March 2021