The head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said during her speech that the regulator is ready to resort to new monetary stimulus measures, including lowering the key interest rate even below zero, to help the recovery of the Euro zone economy. Lagarde also noted that with the second wave of coronavirus in France and Spain, the prospects for restoring activity in the region look «a little more unstable.» The head of the ECB believes that the eurozone's GDP will not return to pre-crisis levels until the end of 2022, so it is necessary to continue stimulating. So far, the ECB has refrained from further cutting rates, although it announced a new stimulus program worth about 3 trillion euros. The key rate for today is 0.0%. Representatives of the banking sector have repeatedly stated that negative rates of the ECB negatively affect profits. Analysts believe that the rate cut will lead to a weakening of the euro, which has strengthened against the US dollar in recent months. And this, in turn, will reduce the concerns of the regulator about the high rate of the euro, which negatively affects large exporters and inflation.
