Euro Gives Back Gains Amid ECB's Hawkish Bias

ECB’s Stark said lower interest rates won’t help “solve problems in financial markets”. He stressed that the ECB’s mandate remains price stability even as the ECB continues to provide additional liquidity to markets. The executive board member also said that he does not believe that there is a risk of a global recession because of the current market turbulence, but Stark stressed that authorities have to avoid the collapse of the whole system. He also warned that depending on the “shock waves” hitting Germany from the U.S., lower economic growth will last into the third quarter of this year. Separately Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported that the government may cut its growth forecast for next year to just 0.5% from 1.2% previously. Amid the hawkish commentary, the euro has retraced earlier gains after peaking to a high of 1.4562