Euro-zone growth to build up in second half

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said he expects euro-zone growth to rebound in the latter half of this year, paving the way to deliberate normalising crisis-mode stimulus policies, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

Nowotny also said markets were wrong to interpret ECB President Mario Draghi’s recent comments as signalling that ultra-loose monetary policy would be prolonged, the Japanese economic daily reported on Saturday.

Draghi said in April the ECB would consider steps to mitigate the impact on commercial banks of its negative deposit rate, a remark that led some market players to believe the central bank was preparing to maintain an ultra-easy policy for a prolonged period given weakening growth in the region.

“That was not what we tried to convey,” Nowotny said in an interview with the Nikkei, adding it was premature to debate how to respond if euro-zone growth slowed further because the next policy step would “depend on economic data at the time”.