Give growth a chance: Europe's central bank need be in no hurry to raise interest rates.(Brief Article)(Editorial)

Economist (US), The, October, 1999

THIS newspaper often stands accused of being written by inflation zealots who see ghosts (for inflation is dead, you understand) around every corner and who never met a rise in interest rates they didn't like. Certainly, we have long urged central banks to act pre-emptively- -to raise interest rates soon enough to stop economies from overheating. Many want the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise rates after its policy-making meeting on November 4th. You might expect us to be among them, and perhaps to call for more than the expected quarter- point rise. Not this time. Our advice is to leave rates as they are.

The argument for why the ECB needs to increase interest rates goes as follows. Interest rates were cut by half a point in April, because of concerns...

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