ECB CHIEF EXPECTS ECONOMIC REBOUND AS PANDEMIC FALLOUT FADES

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has raised the prospect of the ECB preparing to exit its emergency measures at its June meeting when the economic fallout from the crisis unleashed by the pandemic could be starting to fade, Andrew McCathie reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Any talk now of phasing out the ECB's Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) would be "premature," Lagarde told a press conference on Thursday, saying the bank's 25-member governing council did not even discuss the program's future at this week's meeting.

But after an economic slump in the first quarter, as a third wave of infections engulfed the eurozone, Lagarde expects economic growth to resume during the current quarter.

"This was an ECB meeting which had 'see you in June' written all over it," said ING Bank economist Carsten Brzeski.

Lagarde is due to unveil a new round of eurozone economic growth and inflation projections in June, which could point to what she said would be "a firm rebound" in the 19-member currency bloc during 2021.

The euro hit an all-day high of 1.2070 dollars while she was speaking.

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