Sunday, February 14, 2010
ROME (AFP) - – The global economy is recovering but is especially "fragile" in the eurozone, Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi said Saturday.
"The return to growth is fragile, particularly in the euro area," Draghi told an annual meeting of bank executives in southern Naples.
Employment trends are weak and "credit conditions for small and medium- sized enterprises are still tight and hindering recovery," added Draghi, who as a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council also votes on euro- zone interest rates.
Draghi is among front-runners tipped to replace ECB chief Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet in November 2011.
The remarks came after the Eurostat data agency said Friday that economic growth in the 16-nation eurozone was a meagre 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 over the previous quarter, far slower than the growth of 0.4 percent seen in the third quarter.
The figures showed that recovery in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, had ground to a halt, while the Italian economy went back into contraction. Economic growth in France, however, accelerated in the fourth quarter.
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