-Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund
As it was widely expected, Mario Draghi's comments provided a long-term bearish bias for the single currency, as EUR/USD was changing hands around 1.3750 on Monday, after moving to 1.40-mark before the press conference.
Mario Draghi, however, said that is everything about the strength of the currency now and nothing has been said about the economy and inflation in particular. The problem of struggling economy still persists and nothing has changed since the latest inflation report, which fell short of analysts' expectations. On Monday, Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF claimed the 18-nation's bloc's economy is still not out of the woods. The main issues are the access to credit, persistently weak inflationary pressure as well as low competitiveness in the region. There is no time for complacency and each economy should proceed with reforms. Moreover, Lagarde claimed that Germany should not rely on its laurels, and this remark echoes with the latest disappointing fundamental news. Additionally, she warned that Ukraine crisis is a new risk not only for the Eurozone economy, but for the whole world. Keeping it all in mind, the ECB should add more stimulus to keep at bay the risk of deflation and boost growth. The IMF joined France and the OECD to add more pressure on the ECB to act as soon as possible.
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