benoit cœure : interview with bloomberg tv interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, and bloomberg tv, conducted by by ms francine lacqua on 25 january 2019. * * * benoit cœure, the ecb executive board member, joins us right here in davos. thank you so much, mr cœure, for joining us. good morning. you flew in after the news conference in frankfurt yesterday. overall we heard president draghi talk about these risks to the downside, but how would you explain it in your words? why did we not foresee this? we did foresee it, actually. the tone of our discussion yesterday was acknowledging that there is quite a lot of uncertainty around, that a lot of the uncertainty is political, has political sources and, first and foremost, global trade which is a politically - engineered uncertainty. we knew that growth would have to slow down because it started from very high points back in 2017 – 18. but the slowdown has surprised us. we have been surprised. we have to be very careful to monitor the data and that ’ s what we ’ re doing now. we are analysing the data, trying to understand what ’ s going on, and in particular what we have to understand is the persistence of this shock to eurozone growth. i would say : today the jury ’ s still out. when you talk about a shock to eurozone growth, how much of it is actually trade and how much of it is actually internal slowdown? a lot of it is trade. a lot of it comes from the outside. the governing council has said for months that most of the downside risks come from the outside. until yesterday we had said risks were balanced or they were moving to the downside. now, we say they have moved to the downside because these risks to global trade have materialised. what about brexit? first, the ecb is not part of the negotiations. i very much hope that it will yield results and that we can find a solution. but it ’ s not for us to discuss. what i would say is that there are substantial risks to real growth in the united kingdom, but also as a knock - on effect on the eurozone. so we are not complacent about it, but the financial sector is now pretty well prepared for a no - deal brexit, if that were to happen,

that ’ s for banks to prepare for themselves. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches but if they repay, that would tighten financial conditions? well, that ’ s part of many business decisions that banks are taking. our job is to look at the outcome in terms of financial conditions and to see if it ’ s proper in terms of the monetary conditions that we want to see. so it ’ s one issue. but it ’ s only one argument among many others. are you talking to the banks to have an idea of what they ’ ll do so that you can prepare yourself also for the balance sheet? yes, we are, of course. and we are talking to our supervisory colleagues because that ’ s what they do : talk to banks. benoit cœure, how much does the personality of the president actually influence the decision of the governing council? well, that ’ s an interesting question. the governing council is a collegial body ; the president has to be in a position to filter information out of the diversity of the governing council and to build consensus, which the presidents so far have been able to do and have done very well. it is important to be in a position to build consensus. how can you see the dynamics of the council changing once president draghi leaves? i don ’ t see the dynamic of the council changing very much. we have a diversity of individuals and that ’ s why we have a governing council. it ’ s right because we need to filter out the diversity of views in europe. that ’ s what the governing council is there for. benoit cœure, you said that you will continue to work for europe and you don ’ t exclude any possibility. if you were offered the top job – president of the ecb – would you accept? yes, who wouldn ’ t? but it ’ s really not for me to decide, it ’ s not for me to reflect on. i want to continue to be useful. there are many opportunities. i have a job at the ecb until the end of the year, so it ’ s really not for me to have that discussion. benoit cœure, thank you so much for joining us right here at of course davos, world economic forum 2019. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches