Europe’s monetary authorities hold the money continues to be cheap. The key rate in the Euro area remains at a record low of zero percent, as the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided in Frankfurt. Some economists are expecting in view of the increasing risks to the economy now that the ECB will wait with the first increase in interest rates up to the year 2020.

As the Outlook for the overall economic development deteriorated. The experts of the International monetary Fund, for example, expect not a crisis, but less growth than in the past year in the world. With a view on the European economy ECB President Mario Draghi’s speech last week in EU Parliament in Strasbourg as a “slowdown, not is heading for a recession, but it could take longer than initially expected”.

Economists in the DZ Bank spoke last skeptical: “Given the subdued cyclical dynamics of the basic price pressure in the European economy should remain weak.” This could delay the efforts of the ECB to monetary policy normality, or even nip it in the Bud.

In December, inflation slowed in the currency Union: The consumer prices according to Eurostat data, by 1.6 percent above the level of the previous month. The ECB aims over the medium term, an inflation rate of just below 2.0 percent.