ECB's Trichet: We'll see a pick up in 2010

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said in an interview that a pick up in the economy will be seen next year.

The ECB is expected to lower its gross domestic product estimates when it updates its staff forecasts at its rate-setting meeting on March 5.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this week there was a "reasonable" prospect the U.S. recession could end in 2009, with 2010 a year of recovery if efforts to restore credit flows were effective.

Asked if a recovery in 2010 could also be the case for the euro zone, Trichet told Irish national station Newstalk: "I said already that I thought that the next year would be a year where we will observe the pick up."

"At least I noted that it was what practically all economists and institutions were thinking," he said in an interview held on Thursday and broadcast on Saturday.

Revised estimates for GDP are likely to confirm the euro zone's economy shrank 1.5 percent in the last three months of 2008, according to forecasts in a Reuters poll of 37 economists.
"We will see exactly what I will make public on behalf of the ECB Governing Council as regards the staff projections. So the rendezvous is for next Thursday," Trichet told Newstalk during a visit to Dublin this week.

The ECB has cut interest rates by a total of 225 basis points since last October, more than halving benchmark euro zone borrowing costs. It is expected to cut rates to an all-time low of 1.5 percent at Thursday's meeting.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)