ECB to cut its policy rate early next year - Allianz

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank will have to cut its policy rate early next year, a senior economist at German insurer Allianz said on Friday.

"We see recession, much like many other people, as inevitable in Q4," Andreas Jobst, global head of macroeconomic and capital market research, told Reuters.

Jobst, previously an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that will lead to euro zone growth contracting to minus 0.7% next year, a view he said was below consensus.

"I would imagine that on the monetary side, the hawkish ambitions to be scaled back in Q1. As a matter of fact we expect a first rate cut at the end of Q1 going into Q2," Jobst said.

(Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli, editing by Karin Strohecker)