By Jesús Aguado and Clara-Laeila Laudette
MADRID (Reuters) - The results of British elections are positive in the short term as they eliminate uncertainty regarding Britain's exit process from the European Union, the European Central Bank's Vice-president Luis de Guindos said on Friday.
De Guindos made the comments after Prime Minister Boris Johnson´s resounding election victory on Thursday which will allow him to end three years of political paralysis and take Britain out of the European Union within weeks.
"The results of the elections in Great Britain are positive because they eliminate uncertainty in the short term," De Guindos said at a financial event in the Spanish capital.
On Friday, shares already trading at record highs piled on the gains and the pound soared as a last-gasp Sino-U.S. trade deal and a thumping election win by Britain's Conservative Party cleared two of the darkest clouds on the global investment horizon.
"We know perfectly well that on the 31st January the United Kingdom will leave the union - this is good in terms of uncertainty, but also hails a new period, one which will not be easy."
"It will not be easy because commerce rules will have to be renegotiated," De Guindos said.
Guindos also said the slowdown in the euro area had bottomed out amid signs of stabilization in the EU's economy as the scenario of a disorderly Brexit or a trade war between China and the United States had not materialized.
De Guindos made those comments a day after Christine Lagarde struck a more upbeat tone on the economy in her first news conference as head of the ECB.