The worst is over for Europe if officials of the European Central Bank (ECB) are to be believed, no further recessions would be seen in the eurozone and the region's economies should have been tinkering its way to recovery by now.

Citing that a key ECB loan deadline passed without any glitch and Germany's economic figures, which is Europe's biggest economy, posted record highs in May, ECB chief economist Juergen Stark declared that the worst of the debt crisis has passed.

However, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet seemed to adopt a cautiously optimistic attitude for now believing that "it is still too early to declare the crisis over even if the latest signs that we are receiving from the economy are encouraging."

Mr Trichet must be anticipating the outcome of the continent's latest economic episode where the 'stress tests' of 91 European banks would show if they could absorb the impact of major shocks such as loan defaults or another financial contraction coming from a major debtor.

Result will be known by July 23 which could either lead to the eventual subsiding of hovering tensions on Europe or further disappointments for investors who longed fear that financial institutions may have deliberately cloaked some of their issues.

At any rate, the ECB has strongly encouraged Europe's governments to effect heavy measures in order to resuscitate their public finances but some sectors countered that such stringent policy could backfire, with the United States arguing that a too tight financial policy could trigger a 'double dip recession'.

US President Barack Obama said in June that withdrawing economic stimulus too soon could result to resurgent economic difficulties as what happened in the past but the ECB has been adamant with its stand, as it declared that "just like consumers and countries, governments cannot live beyond their means forever."

Mr Trichet said that taxpayers on both the United States and Europe were already punished with risk burdens that pointed to about one-quarter of total economic output if only to fend off further financial crisis, which he said would not be replicated anymore.

He maintained that the debt crisis is a reminder for eurozone governments to deal with their fiscal reforms and structural changes seriously as he cited that "in leading economies in the world I don't see this commitment to fiscal consolidation," adding that "more fiscal stimulus in the end will turn out not to be sustainable."

Mr Trichet also scored that latest International Monetary Fund's (IMF) growth prospect for the region, handing out a measly 1.0 percent to eurozone while giving the US and Asia forecasts of 3.3 percent and 9.2 percent respectively, stressing that "the IMF is underestimating the strength of the recovery in the euro area and other regions of the world and maybe it has not caught up to the reality in Europe."