Latest growth figures show scale of task

The scale of the challenge facing ECB president Mario Draghi was underlined by the latest set of growth forecasts for the eurozone.

The ECB expects GDP growth to average 1% this year; 1.7% in 2015 and 1.8% in 2016, although risks remain firmly to the downside. The inflation forecast is equally grim. The inflation rate for this year is forecast at an anaemic 0.7%, before rising to 1.1% next year and 1.4% in 2016, although again with risks to the downside.

In July 2012, Mr Draghi single handedly put into abeyance the crisis, threatening to rip the eurozone apart when he said that he would do “whatever it takes” to save the single currency. True to his word, he unveiled outright monetary transactions the following month, which pledged to make unlimited purchases of the debt of a member state in return for implementing structural reforms.