Stimulus and cheap oil responsible for eurozone growth

The uncertainties threatening the global economy are not coming from the eurozone, where growth is essentially due to stimulus and cheap oil, a European Central Bank official said on Monday (Feb 8).

"The eurozone is not part of the problem," ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure told French broadcaster BFM. "The problem are the questions, the anxieties, and those about the big emerging countries, about China and the United States," he said after another day of sharp losses on European and US equities markets.

"Our diagnosis today is that there are no bubbles in the eurozone," Coeure said when questioned about the ECB's ultra-low interest rate policy.

Instead, he insisted the ECB's stimulus policy, which is injecting €60 billion (US$67 billion) per month into the markets, has been key in propping up growth. "Growth, the recovery in the eurozone, it is essentially monetary policy and the oil price," said Coeure.

Expansion of the eurozone economy slowed to 0.3 per cent in the third quarter of last year. The first estimate of eurozone fourth quarter and 2015 growth is due to be released on Friday.