ECB, Lagarde: "We come out of the pandemic with a recovering economy"
ECB, Weidmann: "Don't overlook the risks of inflation"
ECB: "Covid variants greater concern for recovery"
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September 16, 2021 "Europe is recovering faster than we anticipated. As a result, we have significantly raised our estimates." The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, in an interview with Bloomberg TV recalls how at the moment for the Eurozone GDP "our projection for this year is
over 5%
, with a significant update", a growth that will be followed by "+ 4.6% next year".
For the next few years, Lagarde adds, the Eurozone should "revert to the
pre-covid
type of
growth
": in any case" this year is definitely going faster than we thought, to the point that we will recover the pre-covid levels before the end of 2021 ", while previously" we had estimated that the beginning of the 2022 ".
Investments to reduce the gap
The
Next Generation Eu
package
" will contribute to a better convergence "among the economies of the Eurozone, by"
reducing the gap
existing between some of the southern European countries and the northern European countries. This is certainly the intention "that inspired him, the president of the ECB said in the interview, adding that to respond to the coronavirus emergency" all countries in the world had to increase their debt, but there was no no choice but to do so "otherwise the impact of the pandemic" would have been much worse.
"" Now it is a question of directing funding towards the
right investments
, so as to have a 'right' recovery with the 'right' structural reforms that will improve productivity " of the economies most affected, said Lagarde.
Digital euro, a necessity. Cryptocurrencies are not currencies
Christine Lagarde continues to push for the creation of a
digital euro
, something very different from the various cryptoassets: a digital euro "is like cash issued by the central bank, but in digital form".
It will not eliminate the intermediation role of the banking system "but certainly - he explained speaking at the Hec Talks conference organized by the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris and the European League for Economic Cooperation - it will be offered to consumers, as an
alternative to cash, more economic
, which will facilitate transactions and is an alternative, but which will not replace cash ".
"Some people are very cash-bound, but the digital euro is an alternative that needs to be developed while there
central bank
must answer the questions of citizens - he said - who often do not want to carry cash but want to be able to use a digital currency ".
" Cryptocurrencies
are not currencies
, full stop ", then reiterated the president Lagarde in the interview to Bloomberg. "They are highly speculative instruments that aim to be recognized as currencies, but they are not" and invites us to distinguish between
cryptocurrencies and stablecoins
"that some big tech companies are promoting and that are a different thing, which needs to be regulated , for which there must be supervision "of assets.
Vaccines: Europe better than the US
Finally, according to the president of the ECB, the opposition to anti-Covid vaccines "varies from country to country" but "I would say that it is probably lower in Europe than in the United States" where the share of 'protected' adults is 64% while in Europe "it is now at 70% and is moving towards ever higher percentages": with this process underway it will be possible "to really understand the correlation between vaccination and economic recovery".