Due to the increasing global trade tensions, the European Central Bank is willing to use any available instruments to fix the Eurozone economy according to Olli Rehn, an ECB Governing Council Member and a strong candidate to succeed Mario Draghi as ECB president when his term expires at the end of October.
“We in the Governing Council are ready to act as appropriate unless there is an improvement in the economic conditions,” Rehn said during a conference in Brussels.
After being asked if the ECB should cut the interest rates or purchasing assets Rehn answered that “the whole range of instruments is on the table.”
Rehn recently warned against a possible currency war, after the United States president Donald Trump attacked Mario Draghi for making remarks that sent the euro lower against the U.S. dollar. Trump, whose trade strategies have been threatening global economic stability lately, has accused Europe of bolstering its economy at the United States’ expense, aiding the euro for “making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA.
De Guindos: ECB is Ready to Act in Case of Economic Deterioration
Following Rehn's statements and after saying that the latest ECB decision was taken unanimously by members of the ECB council, central bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said that the outlook for the eurozone inflation has deteriorated and that in such situation the ECB would be ready to act and to provide extra stimulus.
He made similar statements 4 days ago during an interview in Italy and somewhat echoes Draghi's last statements.
“Let’s see what happens. But I think the important part of our stance is that we are totally ready to react. We will have time enough to know the future when it arrives," he said last Saturday on Italy's Corriere della Sera.
The European Central Bank recently forecasted that inflation levels will be at 1.8% in the long run, way behind the bank's inflation target.