ECB to defer rates hike to Q3 of 2011

SIGNS of a slowing eurozone economy and intensifying austerity measures mean the European Central Bank will likely wait until the third quarter of 2011 to raise interest rates, a Reuters poll showed.

Some 21 of the 76 economists surveyed pushed back their predictions for an ECB rate hike, forcing the overall median forecast for the bank’s next move back a full quarter for the second month running.

Respondents said it was inconceivable the ECB could start withdrawing monetary support soon, given the new urgency for fiscal cutbacks shown by European politicians at the G20 summits, pessimistic business surveys and a still-unresolved eurozone debt crisis.