Lagarde says ECB is at a turning point on rates

Security detail: Special police on guard on the roof of the congress hotel at the 51st annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said a recession isn’t the central bank’s base-line scenario. — AP

DAVOS: European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde says the eurozone will leave the era of negative interest rates in the coming months as the currency bloc has reached a “turning point” in monetary policy.

In an exclusive Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Lagarde said that the ECB will move out of negative rates by the end of the third quarter, but is “not in a panic mode.” She added that a recession isn’t the central bank’s base-line scenario for the eurozone.