FILE PHOTO: Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank delivers a speech during Lamfalussy Lectures Conference in Budapest, Hungary, February 4, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
FRANKFURT - Persistent weakness in euro zone manufacturing raises the risk of other sectors of the economy being infected, extending the currency bloc’s recent downturn, European Central Bank policymaker Yves Mersch said on Monday. “The longer the weakness in manufacturing persists, the greater the risk that other sectors of the economy will be affected by the slowdown as well,” Mersch told a conference.Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson