Interview with Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Eric Albert

4 September 2024

Growth in the eurozone is sluggish, the German economy is contracting and inflation has been below 3% for six months. Are you not worried that you might stifle economic growth by keeping interest rates too high for too long?

In June, our projections for euro area GDP growth in 2024 were 0.9%. Data for the second quarter are consistent with these projections, but the most recent data – such as consumer confidence and activity indicators (Purchasing Managers’ Index), particularly for the manufacturing sector – have not been so encouraging. This poses a risk to the euro area growth outlook. Investment remains weak, which suggests that firms do not believe in a strong recovery. This also weakens our future growth potential by reducing the capacity of our economy to develop and adopt new technologies to boost productivity.

So does this mean that the ECB is keeping rates…