Haruhiko Kurodaand and Mario Draghi may be among the few economists who still think negative interest rates are a good idea.

German exports plunged in August by their largest amount since the height of the global financial crisis and leading institutes cut 2015 growth forecasts in the latest sign that an emerging market slowdown is hurting Europe’s largest economy.

The eurozone economy looks set for a prolonged period of modest growth and low inflation, according to a Reuters poll, with expectations from the start of the year that growth was about to accelerate having all but evaporated.

Europe took a significant step forward in its ambitions to create a single banking framework for the eurozone yesterday after EU lawmakers granted new powers to the European Central Bank to oversee the currency bloc’s banks.