Mersch Says ECB Policy Shift Premature as Economy Shows Strength
- Economy remains weak despite jump in inflation, Mersch says
- December economic confidence reached highest level since 2011
The Apple Inc. store on Passeig de Gracia street in Barcelona.
Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Improving euro-area economic numbers and a faster-than-forecast inflation pickup aren’t enough to warrant an immediate shift in the European Central Bank’s policy, according to Executive Board member Yves Mersch.
“It is absolutely premature today to claim victory over a weak economy,” Mersch, considered one of the more hawkish members of the ECB’s Governing Council said in Paris on Friday. “We have good results but it is absolutely premature to say: drop the guard.”