The European Central Bank on Thursday lowered its growth forecast for the euro area for this year and next as the bank's chief Mario Draghi again warned about the risks from the rising protectionism.
Earlier in the day, the Governing Council left its interest rates, asset purchases and forward guidance unchanged. The bank confirmed that the asset purchases will be halved to EUR 15 billion this month and plan to wind them down at the end of this year "subject to incoming data confirming our medium-term inflation outlook."
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Business News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.