EU Commissioner-designate welcomes ECB stimulus measures

Italy's former centre-left Premier and the European Union's next Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, on Thursday praised fresh stimulus measures to bolster the eurozone which were unveiled by the European Central Bank.

"The European economy is still weak. "The ECB is right to relaunch monetary policy to boost growth and to invite countries with more room for manoeuvre in their budgets to adopt expansionary policies," Gentiloni, who becomes the EU's economy tsar in November, said in a tweet.

The new stimulus measure unveiled by ECB President Mario Draghi including cutting a key interest rate and re-starting quantitative easing to support the region's flagging economy.

The current slowdown "mainly reflects the prevailing weakness of international trade in an environment of prolonged global uncertainties," Draghi told reporters on Thursday.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, is now on the brink of recession and the trade war between the US and China is dragging on growth.