Speaking hours before U.S. President Donald Trump was due to impose new steel and aluminum tariffs, ECB President Mario Draghi said the euro zone could even grow faster than now expected and the biggest risks were a global trade war and efforts to ease bank regulation, another U.S. policy initiative. While its efforts are paying off and the ECB actually raised its 2018 growth projection, inflation - its singular mandate - will miss its target for years to come, well past Draghi’s eight-year term, which ends late next year.
“The outlook for growth confirms our confidence that inflation will converge toward our inflation aim of below, but close to, 2 percent,” Draghi said. “At the same time, measures of underlying inflation remain subdued and have yet to show convincing signs of a sustained upward trend.” “Our mandate is in terms of price stability. Victory cannot be declared yet,” Draghi told a news conference. Dropping its ECB’s so-called easing bias was largely symbolic as few if any expected bigger bond buying. Even Draghi called the move a “backward-looking measure”.
