LONDON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said Britain's economy has showed signs of a recovery, albeit a slow one.
In an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News, King said the recovery would probably take place in the next quarter.
He said the eurozone crisis has cast a "black cloud of uncertainty" over global businesses.
But the central bank chief said that the European Central Bank's actions to support the euro had bought some breathing room and that "now is the time" for eurozone finance ministers to settle the future of the currency.
Although seeing "a few signs" of a recovery in Britain, he said, "After a banking crisis one can't expect to get back to normal, I fear it will take a long time."
"I think our fate in terms of the speed in which we come out of the flat period we're in will depend very much on what happens in the rest of the world," he said.
Britain's 1.5 trillion-pound (2.4 trillion-U.S. dollar) economy, the third-largest in the 27-member European Union after Germany and France, has been in recession for the last nine months, with a reported 0.7-percent drop in output in the second quarter.
King also spoke of the government's deficit-cutting plans. He said it would be "acceptable" if the target for debt cutting by 2015 was missed, as long as it was a result of slow global growth.
|
