Analysts have hailed ECB head Mario Draghi as his handling of a cutback in euro crisis measures helped relieve European exporters, boosted European stock- markets, pushed down Irish bond yields, while reassuring there would be no early hike in interest rates.

The first increases in interest rates still appear to be sometime in the distance despite ECB president Mario Draghi signalling that the central bank was preparing to scale back its huge stimulus programme that has helped boost economic growth in the eurozone, say economists.