FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The euro zone's economic expansion will continue despite a rough patch earlier this year and underlying inflation will pick up towards the end of the summer, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Friday.
In his first public speech since taking up the ECB post this spring, de Guindos said that the ECB's confidence in its projections has firmed, despite some clouds on the horizon.
"While risks surrounding the euro area growth outlook remain broadly balanced, uncertainties emerging from increased global protectionism, the finalisation of the Brexit negotiations and vulnerabilities in emerging markets, have become more visible than a few months ago," de Guindos said at the University of Oviedo in Spain.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Susan Fenton)