European Central Bank is flirting with the risk of a long depression

Brussels, 02/10/2008

With the economy already in recession and with the financial sector balancing on the edge of a cliff, this is defying logic. With short-term interest rates higher than long-term interest rates, an already cracking financial system is being stressed even further.

Says John Monks, General Secretary of ETUC, ‘The ECB is still fighting the inflation of the past. It is time for them to wake up to reality and see the urgency of the situation, even if this means admitting that the June rate hike was a mistake’.