Word: ecb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...less this year. But here's the rub: even as the 12 member countries' economies languish, the European central bank, which conducts a single monetary policy for all euro-zone nations, has been very skimpy in lowering interest rates. After seven rate increases within a year, the ECB grudgingly dropped rates just once, on May 10--and then by a quarter of a percentage point...
...less this year. But here's the rub: even as the 12 member countries' economies languish, the European central bank, which conducts a single monetary policy for all euro-zone nations, has been very skimpy in lowering interest rates. After seven rate increases within a year, the ECB grudgingly dropped rates just once, on May 10--and then by a quarter of a percentage point...
...ECB dragging its feet? Because despite the region's subpar growth and high unemployment (8.3%), every one of the 12 euro-zone countries has inflation rates in the red zone, defined as anything above 2%. Higher energy costs, rising wages and the outbreak of livestock disease have plunged the Continent into stagflation, a brutal combination of poor growth and high inflation. That could prove to be the first big test for Europe's 2 1/2-year-old single-currency system. If the ECBfails to respond soon, it will antagonize European governments and possibly influence coming elections in Germany and France...
...some of the rules to enable each country to have more control over its domestic economy. "No one is questioning the basic premise of the euro," says Carl Weinberg, chief international economist of High Frequency Economics. "It is here to stay, and it's going to work. But the ECB may be subject to more criticism...
...euro-zone nations arrived for their monthly meeting in a deepening panic. "It is quite evident that we have to address the euro situation," said Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker. "We have to be more creative." But the finance ministers have already signed away all their powers to the ECB. And though speculators' hearts raced Friday after a sorrowful Duisenberg hinted at a euro-buying intervention to goose demand, such moves are usually stopgap measures at best. Long-term, there's not a whole lot Duisenberg can do except wait for Greenspan's rate-hike medicine to take effect...