歐洲央行(ECB)行長德拉吉再度回擊德國批評
Mario Draghi has hit back at German criticism of the European Central Bank’s interest rate policy, saying low borrowing costs were symptomatic of a glut in global savings for which Germany was partly to blame.
歐洲央行(ECB)行長馬里奧•德拉吉(Mario Draghi)回擊了德國對該行利率政策的批評，稱低借貸成本是全球儲蓄過剩的結果，而德國對此應該承擔部分責任。
The ECB president’s argument on Monday is a new line of defence against strong objections from German politicians, bankers and the media over the ECB’s decision to lower its benchmark main refinancing rate to zero.
德國政界人士、銀行家及媒體強烈反對歐洲央行將基準主要再融資利率下調至零的決定，德拉吉週一的表態是爲央行政策提出的最新辯護理由。
The ECB also has a deposit rate of minus 0.4 per cent, which works as a tax on lenders’ reserves held at the central bank.
歐洲央行的存款利率爲-0.4%，相當於對各銀行存在歐洲央行的準備金徵稅。
The ECB has faced a barrage of criticism in Germany, where it has been accused of fuelling the rise of the Eurosceptic right and even by one newspaper of creating a “social disaster”.
在德國，歐洲央行遭到了接二連三的批評，它被指助長了持歐洲懷疑論的右翼的崛起，甚至被一家報紙指責製造了一場“社會災難”。
Mr Draghi conceded that official interest rates were “not innocuous”, saying they put pressure on financial companies’ business models and pensioners’ income.
德拉吉承認官方利率“並非無關痛癢”，稱它們對金融公司的商業模式及養老金領取者的收入造成了壓力。
However, ultra loose policy was “not the problem, but a symptom of an underlying problem” caused by a “global excess of savings” and a lack of appetite for investment.
然而，超寬鬆政策“並非問題，而是根本問題的一個症狀”，根本問題是“全球儲蓄過剩”以及缺乏投資意願的結果。
This excess — dubbed as the “global savings glut” by Ben Bernanke, former US Federal Reserve chairman — lay behind a historical decline in interest rates in recent decades, the ECB president said.
德拉吉表示，這種過剩——美聯儲(Fed)前主席本•伯南克(Ben Bernanke)稱之爲“全球儲蓄過剩”——是最近幾十年利率歷史性下滑背後的原因。
“The right way is not to address the symptoms, but address the underlying cause,” Mr Draghi said, adding that ageing populations had led to increased competition for savings while declining productivity meant entrepreneurs were only willing to borrow at lower rates.
德拉吉說：“正確的方式不是應對症狀，而是解決根本原因，”並補充說，人口老齡化導致對儲蓄的競爭加大，而生產率下滑意味着企業家只願意以更低的利率借款。
