ECB faces criticism from Germany, Italy

The European Central Bank came under fire this week when senior German and Italian politicians called on the eurozone central bank to change its policies to help boost Europe's weak economic growth rate.

At a press conference in Berlin on Thursday (28 April), Germany's economics minister, Wolfgang Clement, said the ECB's monetary policies were "not oriented to German needs" and it would be a "big mistake" for the ECB to raise interest rates as revised data showed the country had slipped into a