ECB Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure said in a newspaper interview that policymakers expected “growth to return in the second half of the year”. He told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “there are no grounds for overly gloomy thoughts”. However, he admitted for now “it is very uncertain how long and how strong the downturn will be.”
On monetary policy, Coeure sees no argument for tiered deposit rate. He urged banks to focus on their own costs, rather than blaming ECB’s negative rate for lower profits. Meanwhile, currently, markets are pricing in no rate cut until at least 2021. Coeure warned “we are not tied to such market expectations; they are an important input, but we are not led by them.” He added market pricing are merely reflecting “an assessment of the downside risks which is different to that of the Governing Council”.
