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Interview: Brexit will not change EU-China relationship, former ECB governor Trichet

Xinhua, December 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The former president of the European Central Bank(ECB) said on Wednesday that he expected relations between China and the European Union(EU) to continue unchanged by Brexit.

Jean-Claude Trichet, who was president of the ECB from 2003 until 2011 when he was succeeded by current incumbent Mario Draghi, told Xinhua: "China has always considered Europe a very important player in the global economy, I don't see how Brexit should change anything."

"For the EU-Chinese relationship there is no particular reason why it should change."

Trichet added that he expected Britain and EU relationship to have similar characteristics in the future to its current state.

"As regards the EU, we will know better when we know the decision of the UK government and when Article 50 is activated. I expect a great level of continuity in the relationship," said Trichet.

Trichet was speaking before his speech at a meeting hosted by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) in central London.

In his speech to ICMA members, Trichet said that the referendum defeat for the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, who resigned on Wednesday, over his plans for structural reform was not the signal that Italians wished to quit Europe or the euro.

"I remain fully convinced that the Italian people, when the time comes, will clearly say we do not want to leave Europe, we do not want to leave," said Trichet.

Trichet also highlighted several areas of global central bank policymaking for comment.

He said that the central banks of major advanced economies had converged on a policy of targeting inflation at somewhere around 2 percent as a means of achieving price stability.

"This is a major change we had no such convergence before; there was no meditation of a college of the major central banks saying why not have converging on 2 percent. No, it was a biological evolution driven by the decentralized consideration in each country," said Trichet.

The convergence of policy on 2 percent was a response to "extremely turbulent waters where volatility is becoming the enemy", and that it "illustrates the will of the central banks to remain an anchor of stability in a world which was proved potentially to be very volatile, very dangerous".

Many central banks had also carried out policies of forward guidance, signaling to market participants which direction they expected to take policy, as a response to the uncertainty and challenges of the financial crisis and its aftermath. Endit