“The economic weakness in the euro area is expected to prevail in the early part of 2013” says Draghi
European Central Bank (ECB) left the interest rate at 0.75% as economists expected. After the meeting, President of ECB, Mario Draghi said that Euro-zone economy would have recovery in the following months of 2013. In press conference, Mario Draghi says “…The economic weakness in the euro area is expected to prevail in the early part of 2013. In particular, necessary balance sheet adjustments in the public and private sectors will continue to weigh on economic activity. Later in 2013 economic activity should gradually recover, supported by our accommodative monetary policy stance, the improvement in financial market confidence and reduced fragmentation, as well as a strengthening of global demand. In order to sustain confidence, it is essential for governments to reduce further both fiscal and structural imbalances and to proceed with financial sector restructuring.
With regard to the liquidity situation of banks, counterparties have so far repaid €140.6 billion of the €489.2 billion obtained in the first of the two three-year longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs) settled in December 2011 and March 2012. This reflects the improvement in financial market confidence. Repayments are provided for in the modalities of the three-year LTROs and are at the discretion of the counterparties, who must appropriately assess their funding situation, their ability to provide new loans to the economy and their resilience to shocks. We will closely monitor conditions in the money market and their potential impact on the stance of monetary policy, which will remain accommodative with the full allotment mode of liquidity provision…
The risks surrounding the economic outlook for the euro area continue to be on the downside. They relate to the possibility of weaker than expected domestic demand and exports, slow implementation of structural reforms in the euro area, as well as geopolitical issues and imbalances in major industrialised countries which could both have an impact on developments in global commodities and financial markets. These factors have the potential to dampen the ongoing improvement in confidence and thereby delay the recovery…”
You can also see the Press Release of ECB in the following link : http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/date/2013/html/pr130207_1.en.html