ECB sees rising risks to eurozone economy

 

 

He warned of "heightened uncertainty weighing on confidence and sentiment".
Mr Draghi also said that some members of the ECB's council had voted to cut interest rates this month, although the consensus had been to leave rates unchanged at 1.0%.
Earlier, official figures confirmed that the eurozone recorded zero growth in the first three months of the year.
The ECB also released its latest quarterly economic forecasts of growth and inflation.
Its growth forecast for 2012 was unchanged at a range of between -0.5% and 0.3%.
There was some surprise among analysts that the growth forecast has not been cut.
The inflation forecast was narrowed from between 2.1% and 2.7% to between 2.3% and 2.5%.
Mr Draghi also announced an extension to banks' unlimited access to ECB loans until the end of 2012.
But he declined to extend another liquidity measure, saying: "It is not right for monetary policy to fill other institutions' lack of action".
He said there would be no repeat of the bank's huge programme of three-year loans, in which it injected 1 trillion euros into the financial system in February and December 2011.
Mr Draghi said that, despite the continuing crisis in the eurozone, there was no guarantee that it would be effective if the problems were due to government policy, rather than a lack of liquidity.
"Some of the problems in the euro area have nothing to do with monetary policy," he said.
The euro fell against the dollar during Mr Draghi's news conference, giving up its earlier gains, on the news that the decision to keep rates on hold had not been unanimous.
European stock markets also fell back, although they were still showing gains on the day.