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BERLIN (Reuters) – The risk of Britain leaving the European Union without an agreement is the main short-term risk for the slowdown in the eurozone economy, the chief Finnish central bank Olli Rehn at the German newspaper Die Welt in a statement issued Monday.
"In the short term, Brexit is surely the biggest threat," said Rehn, a member of the Governing Council in charge of setting the key interest rates of the European Central Bank. "Financial markets seem too relaxed and underestimate the risk."
He added that the ECB had made arrangements with the Bank of England to ease turbulence in the case of a messy Brexit.
Asked about the risk of recession in the eurozone, Rehn – often cited as a potential candidate for the succession of ECB President Mario Draghi – said: "Growth has actually slowed significantly and we need to worry for the economy".
(Report by Joseph Nasr, edited by Kirsten Donovan)
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