ECB rate rise ‘would impede recovery’

THE European Central Bank (ECB) risks making a “fundamental policy mistake” if it raises interest rates, a new report has warned.

The Ernst & Young Spring Eurozone Economic Forecast (EEF) says the recovery in Europe will be much slower than in Asia and the US and that ECB rate hikes “could potentially endanger the fragile economic recovery.”

Ireland will struggle over the next few years, but by the end of 2015 it will have the greatest economic growth in the eurozone at 4.7%, more than twice the average of 2%.