FILE PHOTO: Fabio Panetta, director of international and European relations at the European Central Bank, attends the award ceremony for the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, January 31, 2020. Picture taken January 31, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
July 27, 2020
BERLIN (Reuters) – The danger for the euro zone from the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta told La Repubblica, adding that he saw no need to make any tweaks to the bank’s bond-buying programme.
“It’s too soon to declare victory,” Panetta said in the interview circulated by the ECB, adding that the euro zone economy was likely to contract further in the second quarter than the first.
He pointed to recent data that has shown an improvement in industrial production and retail sales but added: “They don’t give us sufficient grounds for satisfaction.”
On the ECB’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), he said: “The programme is working well, and I don’t see any economic reasons to change our decisions or actions.”
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by Thomas Seythal)
