Central Bank News


ECB’s Holzmann: Future PEPP Purchases to Depend on Conditions

ECB’s Holzmann: Future PEPP Purchases to Depend on Conditions

At the press conference marking the presentation of the annual report of the Austrian National Bank, which he heads, Holzmann said that PEPP purchases would depend on conditions. The increase in purchases decided on March 11 reflected the goal of ‘not permitting that a too-high increase in yields hampers the recovery’, he said.

23 March 2021
ECB’s Lagarde: Higher Asset Purchase Pace Will Be Visible Over Time

ECB’s Lagarde: Higher Asset Purchase Pace Will Be Visible Over Time

In her introductory statement at the Hearing of the ECON Committee of the European Parliament, Lagarde said that the ECB’s decision to ‘significantly’ step up the pace of asset purchases reflected the conclusion that rising risk-free market interest rates and sovereign bond yields could cause overall financing conditions to tighten, she said.

18 March 2021
ECB’s Lane: Objective Is to Ensure Yield Curves Don’t Get Ahead of Economy

ECB’s Lane: Objective Is to Ensure Yield Curves Don’t Get Ahead of Economy

In an interview with Financial Times posted to the ECB’s website, Lane, who is also chief economist, said that internal analysis showed that the ECB ‘could do more in terms of providing additional stimulus’. Still, while the ECB hasn’t reached the lower bound and thus ‘could lower the deposit rate’, he said, ‘there is clearly less room to deliver monetary stimulus when interest rates are already low’.

16 March 2021
ECB’s Villeroy: French 2021 Growth Forecast ‘Quite Conservative’

ECB’s Villeroy: French 2021 Growth Forecast ‘Quite Conservative’

In an interview with French commercial radio network RTL, Villeroy, who heads the Bank of France, noted that the new projections of the French central bank called for the domestic economy to expand by 5.5%, a clear increase versus the December forecast of ‘around 5%’.

16 March 2021
German ZEW Posts Fourth Consecutive Rise in March

German ZEW Posts Fourth Consecutive Rise in March

The improvement was the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the first time the indicator has risen that many times in a row in more than a year. Since its recent low of 39 points in November, the index has recovered 37.6 points.

16 March 2021
ECB’s Centeno: Hopeful That Coming Quarters Show PEPP Envelope Appropriate

ECB’s Centeno: Hopeful That Coming Quarters Show PEPP Envelope Appropriate

In an interview with Reuters, Centeno, who heads the Bank of Portugal, said of the purchase amounts under the ECB’s ‘quite successful’ PEPP that ‘the decision is going to be taken on a monthly basis, because we can adapt the baseline amount up or down depending on market conditions.’

16 March 2021