ROME (MktNews) - The ECB sees no reason to believe that the slowdown in the US economy will have any significant impact on eurozone growth this year, ECB executive board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said in an Italian newspaper interview published Sunday.
Speaking to the Rome daily La Repubblica, Padoa-Schioppa rejected a suggestion that the ECB's often expressed view that eurozone growth will remain robust this year, is based on a desire to sustain consumer and business confidence.
"No, ours is an objective judgment. In our indicators we don't see any significant impact on the European economy from the slowdown in the US," Padoa-Schioppa said.
At the same time, Padoa-Schioppa noted that confidence in Europe's growth potential among consumers, businesses and trade unions was not as high as it should be, and this lack of confidence was in itself a factor holding back growth.
One factor playing into confidence must be "the conviction that the process of constructing Europe is an ongoing one," he said, noting that "in this sense, the Nice summit was certainly a disappointment."
Much of Padoa-Schioppa's interview was dedicated to warning the contenders in Italy's general election campaign to stop making tax cutting promises which, Padoa-Schioppa said, cannot be fulfilled without corresponding cuts to spending.
"If I have to compare the degree of support to tax cuts (among the two main coalitions) with the degree of support for spending cuts, I would have to conclude that the consensus is in favor of increasing the public deficit. That, as I said before, is impossible," he said.
The Italian general election is to be held on May 13.