Complacent ECB is happy to sit in the comfort zone

As usual, the European Central Bank is bumbling along a little behind the knowledge curve. In the first week of the new year it declined to raise its key rate, basking rather complacently in mere anecdotal evidence of a rapid pick-up in economic activity, and the comfort of the competitive level of the euro. Stubbornly high unemployment data provided cover for the monetary doves. Now Q4 1999 indicators are already showing the ECB missed an opportunity for a pre-emptive strike. An unexpected rise in the French inflation figure last week might wake the policymakers from their slumbers. Busin...