The euro zone is nearly certain to experience a recession by the end of 2023, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said, according to the Financial Times.
Speaking on Wednesday to a conference in Brussels organized by the newspaper, he said the slump probably won’t be “deep” or “destabilizing.”
“It is almost sure we are going to have a recession by the year-end,” the FT cited the ex-central banker and former prime minister of Italy as saying. “It is quite clear the first two quarters of next year will show that.”
The remarks follow news that the region’s economy suffered a contraction in the three months through September, weighed down by Germany and successive interest-rate increases to bring inflation under control.
“The starting point of this recession is pretty high — we never had such low unemployment,” Draghi said, according to the FT. “So we may have a recession, but maybe it is not going to be destabilizing.”
Belgian Governor Pierre Wunsch, speaking earlier in Brussels, acknowledged the impact of tighter monetary policy and said that growth risks are “tilted to the downside.” The euro zone is “entering some weak form of stagflation,” he added.
