Mario Draghi has hit back at German criticism of the European Central Bank’s interest rate policy, saying low borrowing costs were symptomatic of a glut in global savings for which Germany was partly to blame.

欧洲央行(ECB)行长马里奥•德拉吉(Mario Draghi)回击了德国对该行利率政策的批评，称低借贷成本是全球储蓄过剩的结果，而德国对此应该承担部分责任。

The ECB president’s argument on Monday is a new line of defence against strong objections from German politicians, bankers and the media over the ECB’s decision to lower its benchmark main refinancing rate to zero.

德国政界人士、银行家及媒体强烈反对欧洲央行将基准主要再融资利率下调至零的决定，德拉吉周一的表态是为央行政策提出的最新辩护理由。

The ECB also has a deposit rate of minus 0.4 per cent, which works as a tax on lenders’ reserves held at the central bank.

欧洲央行的存款利率为-0.4%，相当于对各银行存在欧洲央行的准备金征税。

The ECB has faced a barrage of criticism in Germany, where it has been accused of fuelling the rise of the Eurosceptic right and even by one newspaper of creating a “social disaster”.

在德国，欧洲央行遭到了接二连三的批评，它被指助长了持欧洲怀疑论的右翼的崛起，甚至被一家报纸指责制造了一场“社会灾难”。

Mr Draghi conceded that official interest rates were “not innocuous”, saying they put pressure on financial companies’ business models and pensioners’ income.

德拉吉承认官方利率“并非无关痛痒”，称它们对金融公司的商业模式及养老金领取者的收入造成了压力。

However, ultra loose policy was “not the problem, but a symptom of an underlying problem” caused by a “global excess of savings” and a lack of appetite for investment.

然而，超宽松政策“并非问题，而是根本问题的一个症状”，根本问题是“全球储蓄过剩”以及缺乏投资意愿的结果。

This excess — dubbed as the “global savings glut” by Ben Bernanke, former US Federal Reserve chairman — lay behind a historical decline in interest rates in recent decades, the ECB president said.

德拉吉表示，这种过剩——美联储(Fed)前主席本•伯南克(Ben Bernanke)称之为“全球储蓄过剩”——是最近几十年利率历史性下滑背后的原因。

“The right way is not to address the symptoms, but address the underlying cause,” Mr Draghi said, adding that ageing populations had led to increased competition for savings while declining productivity meant entrepreneurs were only willing to borrow at lower rates.

德拉吉说：“正确的方式不是应对症状，而是解决根本原因，”并补充说，人口老龄化导致对储蓄的竞争加大，而生产率下滑意味着企业家只愿意以更低的利率借款。