Quantitative Easing to Begin on March 9
- DATE: Mar 08, 2015
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- CATEGORY: MARKET TRENDS
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- AUTHOR: OPulse Admin
The European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme will be launched on March 9, with the purchase of some €1 trillion in euro area government bonds.
“Following up on our decisions of 22 January 2015, we will, on 9 March 2015, start purchasing euro-denominated public sector securities in the secondary market,” Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank said at a press conference following the ECB Governing Council meeting in Nicosia, held on Thursday.
Disclosing several details regarding the programme, Draghi revealed that the ECB will purchase the bonds at a rate of €60 billion per month.
He also hinted that QE may continue beyond the September 2016 deadline, if necessary.
“The [bond purchasing is] intended to be carried out until the end of September 2016 and will, in any case, be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation which is consistent with our aim of achieving inflation rates below, but close to, 2% over the medium term,” he said.
Draghi pointed out that the ECB QE programme will be more effective if coupled with a continued fiscal reform by the euro area governments.
“To be fully effective… the monetary policy measures that we decided in January but also the previous ones [must] first and foremost need strong structural reforms. Otherwise we can provide as much credit as possible, we can refinance the banking system so they can lend as much money with the lowest interest rates but if the structural conditions are not in place there will be little incentive to use this credit,” Draghi concluded.