ECB council member Ewald Nowotny: We cannot rule out quantitative easing in the Eurozone
We cannot rule out quantitative easing in the Eurozone: that was the message European Central Bank governing council member Ewald Nowotny gave CNBC today.
"I think that we have all learned in life that we should never say 'never',” Nowotny told the channel.
Nowotny is generally considered a hawk, preferring the austere German methods of monetary policy. This makes his remarks all the more surprising.
The Eurozone is facing multiple economic challenges. Inflation just ticked up to 0.4 per cent, but is still in Mario Draghi’s designated sub one per cent danger zone.
GDP in the single currency bloc is even slower, coming in at 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, while unemployment has been stuck at 11.5 per cent for four months.
Of the three spectres of economic doom, Nowotny told CNBC he believed that sustained low growth was the bigger threat. "I think this is the biggest challenge we face right now,” he said.