By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (EconoStream) – European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos on Thursday said that the ECB still had ammunition.

In an online interview organised by El Economista, de Guindos, noting the current volume and intended duration of the ECB’s pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP), said that the materialisation of the risk of a credit contraction and consequent fragmentation, which would have been ‘very bad’ for monetary policy transmission and the ‘most vulnerable countries’, had not occurred.

‘Our programme is running, we still have ammunition and availability in terms of resources’, he said. ‘We are continually evaluating the evolution of the pandemic and the economic impact.’

De Guindos reminded that the ECB had ‘always said that we are open’ to recalibrating the programme as warranted, but suggested that ‘for the moment’ there was no such need.

As to the recovery, he said that indicators showed it to be less intense since August and September.