By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Even if the European Central Bank decided to end net purchases under the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) next March as planned, this would not mean that monetary policy would abruptly tighten, Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said Tuesday.
13 April 2021
In an interview with CNN, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, was asked whether he considered it reasonable that Italy was able to issue 50-year bonds paying less than 30-year sovereign debt of the US. The most important thing was that there be policies ‘to overcome this very, very difficult time’, he said. Moreover, he added, debt sustainability depended on economic growth, the magnitude of the debt and the interest burden.
13 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Provided pandemic containment measures are not extended beyond next month, French GDP growth this year should top 5%, European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said Tuesday.
13 April 2021
Moreover, financial market participants assessed the current situation much more positively, as the subindex rose 12.2 points to -48.8. This was approximately equal to the level of March 2020, ZEW said.
13 April 2021
In a speech at a central banking conference posted to the website of Banco de España, which he heads, de Cos said that given ‘high uncertainty and still fragile economic conditions, monetary policies should continue to contribute to maintaining favourable financing conditions, which will help to underpin the strength of the recovery.’
12 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Of the many sentiments expressed by European Central Bank Governing Council members in recent days, one from Dutch National Bank head Klaas Knot has generated reactions that underscore particularly well the difficulty the ECB could face in taking back anything it has given.
12 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Interest rates in the euro area will eventually have to rise, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Sunday. In an interview with Greek television station ANT1, Stournaras,...
11 April 2021
In an interview with Spanish daily El País, a copy of which was made available by the ECB, Panetta said that ‘[i]n general, it would not be prudent to bet on a rapid recovery’, given the risk of disappointment. ‘And even if we do manage to exit the pandemic soon, we will realise that there is actually more damage to the economic fabric than is currently visible.’
11 April 2021
In an interview with German daily taz, Scholz said that the €400 billion borrowed by Germany during the crisis was ‘a lot of money’, but that ‘the crisis would have cost us much more in the long run’ otherwise.
10 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Lagarde said that the ECB remained ‘very far away’ from price stability, so that it remained too soon to discuss tapering, given regular asset purchases would continue beyond the PEPP.
9 April 2021
In an interview with Belgian business daily l’Echo, Wunsch, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said that Europe could rebound quickly to pre-pandemic levels of economic activity.
9 April 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, said that if needed, the PEPP could in fact be extended beyond its currently planned termination date of next March.
9 April 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, responded to a question about when the ECB could start reducing asset purchases by saying that ‘measures have to be maintained as long as necessary … perhaps a little bit postponing the exit is less worrisome than winding down too early.’
9 April 2021
In a statement made at a virtual meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, said that ‘[t]oday the economic outlook seems to be improving at last, thanks also to the rollout of vaccines’.
9 April 2021
Imports were up 3.6% in February compared to January. Compared to February 2020, the last period before the outbreak of the pandemic, exports this February were down a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 2.1%, while imports were up a weak 0.2%.
9 April 2021
In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, Schnabel said that a lasting rise of inflation towards the ECB’s price stability objective would be a welcome sign of an economic pick-up, but that this scenario doesn’t reflect the current situation.
9 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Rehn, who heads the Bank of Finland, said that ‘it’s of course good that we have good news, but I would not jump the gun yet’, given there is ‘still plenty of uncertainty about the speed of vaccine rollout, about the possible extent of virus mutations.’
8 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Knot, who heads the Dutch National Bank, said, ‘If indeed there were to be a delay in the disbursement of the Next Generation EU [NGEU] recovery fund, that would be absolutely a piece of bad news, because I do believe that fiscal policy is really at the forefront of the crisis-fighting policy response here.’
8 April 2021
According to the account, Council members broadly supported ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane’s proposal that the pace of PEPP purchases over the next quarter be ‘significantly higher’ than previously, on the grounds that financing conditions had tightened despite ‘the lack of a material improvement in the growth and inflation outlook.’
8 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Holzmann, who heads the Austrian National Bank, noted that the extension of the PEPP in December also involved ‘a change by changing from a volume which needs to be spent, to a volume which can be spent, and if need be, increased.’
8 April 2021