The European Central Bank (ECB) has been far too slow in lowering the interest rate to help boost the European economy. This assessment is made by nearly half, 46 percent, of the economists surveyed in a large survey conducted by The Financial Times.
The ECB has announced interest rate cuts on four occasions since last June, most recently in December when the so-called deposit rate was lowered by 0.25 percentage points to 3.00 percent. At the same time, the outlook for the European economy remains bleak, for example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently estimated that GDP growth this year will land at a weak 1.2 percent, which can be compared to 2.2 percent for the USA. The economists surveyed by The Financial Times are even more pessimistic and believe in a growth rate of 0.9 percent.
