Economics
ECB Appointee Rehn Says Jury Is Still Out on Extent of Slowdown
- Rehn appointed as governor of Bank of Finland starting in July
- U.S. fiscal policy, political doubt and slow reform all risks
Photographer: Ville Mannikko/Bloomberg
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The next head of Finland’s central bank said “the jury is still out” on whether the euro-area economy will rebound from its recent soft patch, and expressed concern about the medium-term outlook.
Policy makers are looking at data “to confirm if it’s a temporary slowing or something more permanent,” Olli Rehn, a former European Union commissioner for economic and monetary affairs who is set to replace Erkki Liikanen on the European Central Bank’s Governing Council in July, said in an interview in Helsinki on Thursday. “In the short term the risks are relatively balanced, but in the medium term they tend toward the downside.”