(Bloomberg) -- The euro area will not return to its pre-crisis growth path unlike the U.S., meaning that two years of economic expansion may have been permanently lost, European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta said in an interview with El Pais.

  • While U.S. economy will return to pre-crisis levels this year, euro area will not do so before mid-2022, Panetta said in the Q&A interview published on the ECB’s website.
  • “We cannot be satisfied with inflation at 1.2% in 2022 and 1.4% in 2023. The argument that we could extend the horizon to meet the aim is not a convincing one,” he said.
  • ECB does “have room for maneuver because so far we have only used part of the €1.85 trillion envelope.”
  • Governing Council will decide in the “coming months” whether or not a formal project should be launched to get ready to issue a digital euro.
    • If these intermediate steps are successful, euro area could be ready to launch the digital euro within five years.

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