ECB rate rise ‘unlikely until 2016’

One of the European Central Bank’s chief decision-makers has all-but ruled out any rise in the eurozone’s key benchmark interest rate — from its current record low — for at least two years.

ECB Governing Council member and Austrian National Bank chief Ewald Nowotny told his country’s largest newspaper at the weekend that as the recovery in the eurozone was still at an early stage, it remains unlikely the ECB will increase its rates until 2016, when it is hoped more sustainable economic growth will be evident.

In an interview with the Vienna-based Krone Zeitung, Mr Nowotny said the eurozone economy is only showing signs of green shoots at present.