Eurozone recovery is reversible, warns ECB

European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure cautioned that the region’s economic recovery is reversible and needs to be used as an opportunity by governments to boost growth potential.

“Be careful, the recovery is cyclical and led by low oil prices,” Mr Coeure said yesterday at a conference in Paris. Cheaper energy “may last for some time, but could also not last that long”, he said.

The remarks can be seen as a warning to governments that if they use ultra-low borrowing costs from the ECB’s bond-buying programme as an excuse to backslide on reforms, they’ll suffer. He was less bullish than ECB president Mario Draghi, who has said in the past week “our monetary-policy decisions have worked” and are “certainly” supporting the recovery.