The head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, told EU leaders that the eurozone economy is experiencing a “dramatic fall” and called on the EU to act to accelerate recovery, Reuters reported.
EU leaders are holding a video conference on Friday to discuss ways to recover from the crisis.“(The) EU economy is experiencing a dramatic fall,” she told the gathering, according to officials.
“Decisive and effective action by both national governments and European actors has proven its worth: they paved the way for a rebound towards year-end and helped to buy some time. This is reflected in market sentiment, but failure to deliver could lead to a change in that sentiment,” she said.
Lagarde repeated the ECB’s forecasts that the eurozone economy would shrink 13% in the second quarter from the first, and contract 8.7% overall in 2020, before rebounding by 5.2% in 2021.
“It’s in our own hands to forge the recovery we want to see,” she noted.
“The recovery package should be far, fast, flexible and firmly anchored in economic reforms. The faster the package is agreed, the better for the EU economy,” she said, according to officials.
