Berlin (AFP)

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said she expected a "significant" recession in the eurozone due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, in a column to appear in several European newspapers on Friday.

"A large part of the economy is temporarily at a standstill, therefore economic activity in the euro zone will contract considerably", estimated the French leader in this text, published in particular in Le Figaro in France, the Handelsblatt in Germany, the Financial Times in the United Kingdom, La Repubblica in Italy and El Mundo in Spain.

This column was published the day after the monetary institute announced a massive 750 billion euro plan to try to support the European economy in the face of the impact of the epidemic.

And if that were not enough, the ECB will do "all that is necessary within the framework of (its) mandate to help the euro zone to overcome this crisis", because the institution "is at the service of Europeans", insists the French president.

She took office in November and the coronavirus crisis was her baptism of fire.

The former minister was criticized for her risky communication around the management of this crisis, when last week announced the first plan of support from the ECB.

She had then given the feeling of not wanting to worry about the countries of the euro zone, like Italy, hard hit by the spread of the virus and who see the cost of their borrowing on the markets increase.

Mrs. Lagarde had in the process to clarify his words.

His first plan was also deemed insufficient by French President Emmanuel Macron in particular.

The latter, however, welcomed the following announced Wednesday evening and consisting of a massive plan to buy State and business debt to encourage European banks to continue lending and thus support employment and production.

If the ECB was forced to take out heavy artillery on Wednesday evening, it is because "financial conditions in the euro zone have deteriorated markedly" in recent days, and that "our assessment of the economic situation has clouded ", explains Ms. Lagarde in her tribune.

The "emergency" device in the face of the pandemic represents "7.3% of the GDP of the euro zone" and aims to offer a breath of fresh air to an economy seized by the virus.

But if monetary policy has provided a strong response, "health and fiscal policies are at the forefront," she said.

A way of calling on governments to also untie the purse strings.

His exhortations addressed to European states a week ago, then at Eurogroup meetings in Brussels, so that they could provide a coordinated budgetary response to the crisis, have remained unheeded for the moment.

Each country plays for the moment especially its own partition, as in the health field or, to a certain extent, in that of border control.

On the budgetary question, Mr. Macron is on the same line as Ms. Lagarde.

"It is up to us, European states, to be there through our budgetary interventions and greater financial solidarity within the euro zone," he said on Wednesday.

Traditionally more orthodox, Germany is more cautious on the subject but it has put water in its wine. According to German media, Berlin could relax its budget rules on Sunday in order to be able to run a deficit.

© 2020 AFP