ECB may do more to stimulate EU economy

The European Central Bank may be forced to bolster its monetary stimulus programs if governments fail to act to boost their economies, board member Benoit Coeure said yesterday. “If there is not much taking place on the structural reform front, if there’s not much taking place on the fiscal policy front... then the ECB will do more,” Coeure told a Geneva panel discussion, Bloomberg News reported. The ECB’s governing council is to meet on September 8, after members chose to take no new measures at a July meeting weeks after Britain’s shock vote to quit the European Union. With more data on the economic fallout of Brexit available by early September, some ob- servers expect President Mario Draghi to announce new measures. Draghi said in July that the bank was “ready, willing, and able” to intervene if necessary. But Coeure warned yesterday that “the more we do, the more side effects will materialize.”