By Alessandra Galloni FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The euro zone economy is still set to rebound this year provided lockdown measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic are lifted by the end of March and vaccines distributed, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday. Only last month, the ECB predicted economic growth of 3.9% this year in the bloc of 19 countries that share the euro, assuming a gradual end to the pandemic. But resurgent COVID-19 cases and increasingly widespread curbs to movement and activity in countries including Germany and France, along with the slow rollout of vaccines, are already challenging that outlook, just two weeks into 2021.
The chairman of private equity firm Primavera Group, which counts China s Ant Group among its portfolio companies, believes the financial technology giant s founder Jack Ma is safe and sound , and said that he remains optimistic about the company. The comments by Fred Hu come as Chinese regulators are investigating e-commerce giant Alibaba and its affiliate Ant after abruptly cancelling the latter s initial public offering (IPO) in November last year. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who also controls Ant, has not been seen in public since Ant s IPO debacle. I believe he is safe and sound. He remains an enduring example of a successful entrepreneurship, Hu said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Wednesday, without elaborating.