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28th Mar 2024

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ECB downplays importance of Bitcoin

Digital currencies such as Bitcoin will not replace normal money, the deputy head of the European Central bank, Vitor Constancio, has said. "Private 'cryptocurrencies' can never prevail as general money substitutes," he said in Rome on Thursday, Reuters reports. He said they were "not a currency but just a commodity used as a speculative asset" or a "restricted medium of exchange" used by criminals and failed states.

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Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

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