By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Early last October, medical science remained far from being able to offer a proven solution to the Covid-19 pandemic; despite relevant processes being vastly expedited, the first approval was still months away. A solution was sorely needed in Spain, among many other places, as the country was in the midst of its largest wave of new cases thus far.
27 April 2021
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Tuesday indicated that he felt the existing EU fiscal rules were sufficiently flexible.
27 April 2021
In an article for the magazine Economistas, de Cos, who heads Banco de España, said that ‘the high uncertainty and fragility of the recovery in the euro area, medium-term inflation expectations that are well below our objective, and nominal effective exchange rate developments that in recent months have offset much of our stimulus, suggest that there is no room for complacency with regard to monetary policy.’
26 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta killed two birds with one stone on Monday, turning a treatise on whether globalisation hinders monetary policy’s domestic objectives – in particular by engendering spillovers that render financing condition favourability an effectively exogenous variable - into another plea for continued policy support.
26 April 2021
In a speech at a joint BIS, BoE, ECB and IMF conference, a copy of which was made available by the ECB, Panetta said that ‘monetary and fiscal policies should work together to deliver a stronger and more inclusive recovery, reducing the risk of inflation undershooting our aim for a prolonged period’, he said. ‘This is the best way to avoid lasting scars.’
26 April 2021
The German Ifo business climate index rose 0.2 point, the third monthly increase, to 96.8. However, while companies surveyed were happier about their current situation, their expectations for the next six months became less optimistic, the institute said.
26 April 2021
In an interview with German weekly Bild am Sonntag, Scholz said that the preconditions for clarity were stable case numbers and more vaccinations.
25 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller said Friday that since market interest rates hadn’t risen further, the ECB had no reason to do anything at last week’s monetary policy meeting.
23 April 2021
In a blog post on the website of the Central Bank of Ireland, which he heads, Makhlouf said that underlying inflation continued to be subdued.
23 April 2021
In a speech at the Ernst and Young Insights Forum posted to the website of Banco de España, which he heads, de Cos said that decisions about the pace of PEPP purchases would be taken without regard to the preceding pace.
23 April 2021
The survey of professional forecasters (SPF) for 2Q 2021 showed respondents to have revised up their expectations for 2021 a full 0.7 point to 1.6%, but to be unchanged in their views of inflation in both 2022 (1.3%) and 2023 (1.5%).
23 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council Boštjan Vasle appears to have been the first Council member out of the blocks following ECB President Christine Lagarde's highly dovish press conference a day earlier, with a carefully worded statement on the monetary policy meeting that could be a harbinger of less gentle dissent to come.
23 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European instrument for temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) has been successful, Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, said Wednesday.
22 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday was at great pains to sound dovish, so much so that she appeared to suggest rather blithely at one point that the ECB hadn’t really even so much formally accelerated pandemic-related asset purchases as it had simply adjusted the pace to a new normal consistent with the ECB’s policy approach.
22 April 2021
In a speech before German parliament, Scholz said that ‘because the situation remains serious, something must be done beyond what we have done so far.’
21 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on April 13 with Agence France Trésor Chief Executive Anthony Requin:
21 April 2021
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – Agence France Trésor, France’s sovereign debt issuer, sees little likelihood that it will issue any debt with a maturity of greater than 50 years, according to AFT Chief Executive Anthony Requin.
21 April 2021
In an interview with public broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television, Šimkus, who took over the helm of the Bank of Lithuania earlier this month, declined to address monetary policy questions directly on account of the quiet period ahead of Thursday's Governing Council meeting.
20 April 2021
In a speech for a virtual ESM seminar on debt sustainability, Buch noted that while in the global financial crisis excessive leverage in the banking sector had caused a financial crisis, the pandemic was a threat to the liquidity and solvency of the corporate sector.
20 April 2021
Both firms and households demanded less credit in 1Q, banks reported.
20 April 2021