Tag: European Central Bank

Criticism of the European Central Bank by Nicolas Sarkozy is "ill founded" argues Professor Paul de Grauwe. In this interview, he speaks about the ECB's policies, eurozone enlargement and why central banks hide the "cost of cash".

A number of EU governments could slash their spending by more than a quarter and still provide top-quality public services, said a senior official at the European Central Bank, in what could be viewed as an incursion into member states' fiscal policy.

The European Central Bank (ECB), while keeping interest rates steady at 3.5%, hinted that they could rise next month amid ongoing wage negotiations in Germany, a move which would make European exports more expensive.

Eurozone finance ministers say that there is no need to act on the recent surge of their currency against the US dollar despite French fears that the current situation could dent economic growth.

Economic growth in the EU will overtake America’s for the first time in years and millions of jobs will be created in 2007, according to the Commission’s latest economic forecasts.

Eurozone economic growth outpaced the US and Japan in quarter II of 2006, but slower growth is predicted for the rest of the year. The ECB is set to react with another interest rate hike.

Several European business associations expressed their dissatisfaction with the 0.25 point rate rise of the European Central Bank on 8 June.

In an economic environment marked by the rationalisation of workflows and by global competition, good macro-economic figures are a necessary condition for creating jobs, but not a sufficient one, experts at a Brussels conference agreed. 

The European Central Bank has decided, against the will of several EU political leaders and recommendations by the OECD, to lift its interest rate by a quarter point to 2.25%.

Inflexibility, a reluctance to correct mistakes, excessive independence and a pathological obsession with fiscal policy are four serious problems afflicting the European Central Bank, argues Wolfgang Munchau in the FT.

The European Central Bank's president predicts a "stronger upswing" in eurozone growth in 2005 but warns against plans to relax the Stability Pact's fiscal rules.

Italy has narrowly escaped a reprimand from EU finance ministers for breaking the EU's Stability and Growth Pact. Rome now has two months to present a plan to get its deficit under control.

Finding a successor to Domingo Solans may turn out to be more complicated due to the fact that the top job at the IMF is also vacant. The new ECB board member is likely to be either Belgian, Irish or Spanish.

The aim of this paper is to analyse theoretically and empirically the likely impact of the reduction in exchange rate uncertainty, due to the EMU accession, on the intensity of FDI inflow into candidate countries.

This paper analyses the link between forthcoming EU enlargement and selected aspects of EU institutional reforms, namely decision making rules in the European Central Bank and the status of the Eurogroup.

All future members of the European Union will be eligible to join the European single currency, the euro, in accordance with the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty. The ten countries that are due to join the EU on 1 May 2004 have all expressed interest in joining the eurozone at the earliest possible time. However, monetary integration may take longer for some future members, notably Poland and Hungary, whose budget deficits are deteriorating while unemployment is soaring. The future members will also have to make further efforts toward catching up to EU levels of income per capita, which requires hard work in the area of labour markets and fiscal policy reform.

Jean-Claude Trichet will succeed Wim Duisenberg as president of the European Central Bank from November, following the approval of his nomination by the Parliament on 23 September.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has expressed optimism on the prospect for an economic revival in the 12-country eurozone in the second half of 2003.

EU finance ministers adopted the Recommendation for the nomination of Jean-Claude Trichet as the next president of the European Central Bank at their meeting in Brussels on 15 July.

The Romanian government has welcomed the decision of the Thessaloniki Summit to supports Romania's ambition to close accession talks in 2004 and become an EU member in 2007.

Backing for the draft EU constitution, appointment of a new president for the ECB and plans to include Balkan states in the Union are among the key results of a three-day summit of EU leaders in Thessaloniki.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates by 0.5 per cent to 2 per cent on 5 June.

Europe appears on the brink of recession, with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands reporting that their economies unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter of 2003.

On 8 May, the European Central Bank relaxed its inflation goal and predicted euro zone growth to be around 1 per cent in 2003.