ECB’s Mario Draghi speech: "Innovation and entrepreneurship in the euro area"

Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB) will give an opening address at the joint conference ‘Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the euro area’, organized by the central bank and the MIT, at 1330h GMT.

Along with President Draghi, Vice-President Vitor Constancio and Board member Peter Praet are also due to speak at the event.

Structural reforms will take centre stage

President Draghi and his peers are expected to focus on the much-needed structural reforms in the euro bloc. Draghi has many times urged governments to accelerate the implementation of such structural reforms, as they play a key role in adding sustainability to the recovery of the region.

At his speech last Thursday following the ECB decision to leave its monetary status quo unchanged, Draghi reiterated that risks in the region remain tilted to the downside, while he downplayed the recent rebound of consumer prices, saying that the up trend is largely based on volatile energy prices and thus the underlying trend still stays unconvincing. However, market perceived as hawkish the central bank’s decision of not to use another TLTRO and that there is no more such a ‘sense of urgency’ to take further actions.

About Mario Draghi

The European Central Bank's president Mario Draghi was born in 1947 in Rome, Italy. Graduated of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Draghi became the president of the European Central Bank in 2011. As part of his job in the Governing Council he gives press conferences in the back of how the ECB observes the current European economy. President's comments may determine positive or negative the Euro's trend in the short-term. Usually, if he shows a hawkish outlook, that is seen as positive (or bullish) for the EUR, while a dovish is seen as negative (or bearish)”.