BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Euro zone growth is clearly slowing, indicators are trending down and optimism appears to be fading, European Central Bank policymaker Jozef Makuch said on Friday.
Makuch, Slovakia's central bank governor, said the relatively muted tone of minutes of the ECB's December policy meeting already reflected this assessment and the bank continues to keep all instruments on the table.
"Some indicators, including soft indicators, are trending downwards," Makuch told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. "Like (ECB board member) Benoit Coeure said, all measures still remain deployable."
With regard to recent weak data out of Germany in recent months, Makuch said that no big conclusions should be drawn on figures from a single quarter.
(Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikoav; Writing by Balazs Koranyi)
