ECB Mersch: ECB Successful in Delivering Price Stability

FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank has been successful in
delivering price stability to the Eurozone, and the economic recovery is
ongoing, but it is still too early to declare victory, ECB Governing
Council member Yves Mersch said on Thursday.

“It is widely accepted that the best a central bank can do in
supporting economic growth is delivering price stability,” Mersch said
during his speech in London. “The ECB has delivered price stability.”

He also said the incoming hard and soft data, which point to a
slowdown in the economic recovery for the second half of this year, “do
not warrant increased pessimism.”

Though noting that markets often reacted with a delay and in an
exaggerated fashion, Mersch said the tensions in the financial sector
were easing, “although it is still too early to claim victory.”

Still, the crisis revealed a number of weaknesses, some of which
had their source in the financial system. The crisis also revealed
the shortcomings in the macro-prudential area, within the Eurozone and
throughout the industrialized world, Mersch said.

— Frankfurt bureau: +49-69-720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —

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