Green shoots of recovery emerging in Europe’s economy

There are green shoots of recovery emerging in Europe’s economy but they are very tentative and need to be managed with great care, a European Central Bank policymaker said today.

ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch, speaking at a banking conference in the United Arab Emirates, stressed that there was no consideration of an interest rate hike by the ECB anytime in the near future.

Mersch also said Europe was not ready to embark on another change of the European Union treaty in order to create a European banking union, a common framework for its banks which proponents hope would stabilise and protect the sector.

He said authorities would probably before or around mid-October harmonise a set of undertakings to assess banks’ balance sheets. It is important to have outside consultants assess the quality of bank balance sheets, he added ( C ) Reuters