ECB Warns Of 'Sizeable' Hit to Growth from a Trade War

• Global economic output would suffer a "sizeable" loss if trade became more fragmented and an immediate boost to inflation would only fade over a few years, the European Central Bank's chief economist Philip Lane said on Thursday.
• His comments marked the ECB's starkest warning yet about the potential consequences of a global trade war, a concern that has loomed large for investors since Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month, driven by his protectionist stance.
• "Trade fragmentation entails sizeable output losses," Lane said in slides prepared for a speech in Amsterdam. Lane envisaged a scenario in which global trade is increasingly divided between Western countries and a China-led East.
• His comments marked the ECB's starkest warning yet about the potential consequences of a global trade war, a concern that has loomed large for investors since Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month, driven by his protectionist stance.

Source: (Reuters)