Brussels, 03/08/2006
“For years the unions have made an important contribution to price stability with their moderate collective bargaining policies. Now it is high time that European monetary policy faces up to its responsibility for growth and employment”, says Reiner Hoffmann, Deputy General Secretary of ETUC. “Economic growth had, happily, gained ground, but is not at all robust and clearly threatens to fall under 2% again next year. With the ECB's decision to hike rates up to 3%, economic growth is unnecessarily endangered. As long as there is no clear improvement in the labour market, the ECB should not cling slavishly to a target inflation of 2%”. Hoffmann calls for a strengthening of the macro economic dialogue, especially in the Eurozone. A stronger coordination of monetary, financial and wage policies is urgently required, in which all the actors must face up to their responsibilities. It is not feasible that only the employees do their duty, and are then rewarded with real income losses.