Eurozone fiscal stance appropriate, reform needed: ECB's Coeure

[BRUSSELS] The eurozone's fiscal stance is appropriate, but governments need to coordinate structural reforms to ensure the eurozone economy does not become stuck in low growth and low inflation, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said.

Mr Coeure said that the ECB had to prove convincingly that it would bring inflation back towards its target of below, but close to 2 per cent over the medium term, but it could only do so if other institutions and governments played their part.

"I see the risk that the eurozone economy would stabilise on a path with low growth and low inflation," Mr Coeure told an economic conference on Wednesday, calling it "one per cent economics" where both growth and inflation stay around that level.

"My belief is that it is not sustainable," he said.

He said that while EU institutions and governments were independent, they were also interdependent on each others'actions and that fiscal, monetary and structural policies were all part of the mix.

REUTERS