It is time to start raising interest rates, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank has said, warning that bubbles are emerging in parts of the market.
Speaking in Frankfurt, John Cryan said: “The era of cheap money in Europe should come to an end, despite the strong euro.”His comments come ahead of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting on Thursday, when remarks by the bank’s president, Mario Draghi, will be closely watched for any impact on the euro, which is approaching a three-year high of about $1.20 (91p).
The ECB is pumping €60bn a month into the markets in an attempt to stimulate growth, making a total of €2tn, and has operated a negative interest rate since 2014.
“It would help us greatly if Europe were to bring negative rates to an end and a single European financial market were finally to be created,” said Cryan.
While cheap money helped banks and economies through the financial crisis, it pushed yields on government bonds to historically low levels, driving up property prices and benefiting stock markets. Volatility in markets is also low.
“For me, this means one thing above all: we are now seeing signs of bubbles in more and more parts of the capital market where we wouldn’t have expected them,” he said.
A tightening of monetary policy would help the EU’s banks at a time when US banks are starting to benefit from rising profits. Cryan blamed the low interest rate environment for a fall in profits at Europe’s banks.
