Lagarde says EU recovery fund is starting to have growth impact

EUROPEAN Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the European Union’s recovery fund is proving to be one of the bloc’s success stories and is starting to show results in the economy.

The Frankfurt-based policymaker told a conference in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence that the so-called NextGenEU facility is working.

“Under successes, we can cite innovations, and in some way transgressions, in the decision of European leaders together to launch a big European loan and to allocate it in an asymmetric way according to the damage and horrors suffered in each country, with a will to repay it in a collective way,” Lagarde said.

“It’s in place now and is starting to have effects, both on economic activity and on a certain number of structural reforms.”

Lagarde’s comments are likely to be among her last before a blackout period begins next week in advance of the ECB’s Jul 18 decision. Earlier this week, she told her institution’s annual retreat in the Portuguese resort of Sintra that officials need more data to feel confident that inflation is sustainably on the right path. 

In her Aix-en-Provence appearance, Lagarde did not face direct questions from the audience and did not address either the current economic outlook or the situation with regard to the French election. BLOOMBERG