In a Twitter thread, Schnabel said that ‘[i]t may be misleading to infer from the weekly data how large monthly net purchases are likely to be. One reason is the varying number of trading days across months, which implies that identical monthly volumes may go along with different weekly volumes.’
15 March 2021
In an opinion piece in Finnish business daily Kauppalehti, Rehn, who heads the Bank of Finland, said, ‘Economic recovery has begun, and towards the summer the health threat should also recede with the introduction of vaccinations.’ Still, ‘the near-term economic situation remains difficult’, he said.
15 March 2021
In an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo, de Cos, who heads the Banco de España, said that ‘[i]n a context where the macroeconomic picture is similar to that of three months ago, with a medium-term inflation forecast that is far from our target and below that anticipated before the crisis, we believe that a tightening of financing conditions is not appropriate because it could hinder the economic recovery.’
15 March 2021
In an op-ed piece in the Times of Malta, Scicluna, who heads the Central Bank of Malta, wrote that ‘[t]he future remains uncertain, with the ECB talking of cautious optimism.’
15 March 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Kazaks, who heads Latvijas Banka, was quoted as saying that ‘[i]f the economy performs better, it could be possible to provide less support.’ A ‘rise in yields will need to be accepted. But it should be gradual to avoid premature tightening.’
14 March 2021
In an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea, Scholz, according to a text made available by the Finance Ministry, said that Germany must now ‘closely observe how the infection incidence develops, especially with regard to the mutations.’
12 March 2021
In an op-ed piece in Estonian daily newspaper Postimees, Müller, who heads the Estonian central bank, called the rise in government bond yields ‘signficant’ from a central bank’s point of view, but pointed out that sovereigns were still able to benefit from very low interest rates.
12 March 2021
In an interview on the economic and political webcast Ecorama, Villeroy, who heads the Bank of France, said that the flexibility of the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) made unnecessary both greater specificity about the ECB’s more rapid purchase rate and an increase in the size of the PEPP envelope.
12 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Consumer prices in Germany were confirmed to have risen in February by 1.3% on the year to almost the level of before the pandemic, according to the German Federal Statistical Office on Friday.
12 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s decision yesterday to accelerate the rate of asset purchases to counter risen yields was made with the envelope of the pandemic asset purchase programme (PEPP) unchanged, Governing Council member Boštjan Vasle said Friday.
12 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank will disregard an increase in inflation this year that could potentially see HICP breach the ECB’s 2% price stability threshold, ECB President Christine Lagarde said Thursday.
11 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – A central bank must always be on guard against the ‘disease’ of inflation, European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said Thursday.
11 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – German hourly labour costs climbed a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 2.1% on the quarter in the last quarter of 2020, the German Federal Statistical Office said Thursday.
11 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member and German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann was re-elected chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, the BIS said on Wednesday.
10 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The French economy has left recession and will expand by at least 5% this year, European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said Tuesday.
9 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – German Bundesbank Board member Burkhard Balz on Tuesday said that if the Eurosystem introduced a digital euro, it would do so in such a way that risks to financial stability did not result.
9 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – German exports climbed a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 1.4% on the month in January, the German Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday.
9 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank faces a monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council on Thursday that may bring the differing views among its members into starker relief than any other such gathering recently.
9 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Seasonally adjusted Eurozone GDP declined by 0.7% on the quarter and 4.9% on the year in 4Q of 2020, leading to a 6.6% drop for the year as a whole, EU stats office Eurostat reported on Tuesday.
9 March 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The fact that the UK’s banks have been asked to prepare for the possibility of negative interest rates does not imply anything about what course the Bank of England’s monetary policy will take, BOE Governor Andrew Bailey said Monday.
8 March 2021