ECB’s de Guindos: Consumption Is ‘Key Factor’ Behind Fragile Growth

16 November 2024

ECB’s de Guindos: Consumption Is ‘Key Factor’ Behind Fragile Growth
Luis de Guindos, vice president of the European Central Bank, at the ECB Governing Council meeting in Frankfurt on September 12, 2024. Photo by Manuel Bernabeu/ECB.

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Saturday that the ECB had to discover why economic growth was so weak and consumption was part of the answer to that question.

In an on-stage conversation at the Trilateral Commission meeting in Madrid, de Guindos said that ‘we have good news with respect to inflation, and on growth we have not very good news’.

For de Guindos, the ‘main question mark’ for the ECB currently was the reason for the fragility of economic growth.

‘A key factor behind this is the evolution of consumption’, he said.

The ECB was confident about inflation receding to the 2% target in 2025 despite doubts about prices in the services sector, he said.

‘The question mark is services inflation’, he said.