ECB Forecasts Global Growth

At a time when the UK is still facing growing unemployment and more industrial losses, the European Central Bank (ECB) has announced that for the first time since 2008, it has predicted that there will be global economic growth in 2010.

The ECB has also stated that it predicts little to no growth in 2009 as much of the world is still busy trying to recover from major job losses amongst other things.

According to analysts, the ECB’s hold on interest rates has been responsible for much of this positive news, with the bank keeping European interest rates at a steady 1%. ECB President Jean Claude Trichet said that ‘the pace of contraction is clearly slowing down, even though uncertainty is still high.’

What this means for the British economy remains uncertain, but after a brief phase of stabilization, the ECB made these announcements and also plans to try and boost business lending in order to stimulate economic growth.

However, unemployment still remains high, and many governments have stated that this is a problem that will remain an issue until 2011 and beyond, with Euro countries facing record levels of unemployment, this announcement may have been premature.

Recently, US President Obama also commented on the state of unemployment for the United States, making the comment that ‘There will not be a true recovery until job losses stop.’

With different nations taking a variety of different stances, the UK has remained somewhat quiet recently as the part government owned Lloyd’s group recently announced losses of over £4bn in the first half of 2009 alone.

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