EXCLUSIVE: ECB’s Vasiliauskas: Increase in PEPP Purchases Temporary, But Hinges on Situation
- PEPP’s €1.85 Trillion ‘Should Be Enough’; Recalibration ‘Not on Our Agenda’
22 March 2021 Central Bank News
Latest News
German Bundesbank: HICP Could Temporarily Top 3% in Germany in 2H 2021
In its latest monthly bulletin, the German central bank said that HICP would rise over the coming months, driven in part by more expensive crude oil.
22 March 2021 Central Bank News
German Finance Minister: There Is Justified Hope That Pandemic Will Be over by Summer
In an interview with German weekly Bild am Sonntag, Scholz said with respect to the public health situation that ‘slowly it is getting better.’
21 March 2021 Central Bank News
ECB’s Holzmann: I Consider an Interest Rate of Zero or Below an Exception
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – An interest rate at or below zero is an exception and an exit from such a situation will be discussed after the pandemic is overcome, European Central Bank Governing Council member Robert Holzmann suggested...
19 March 2021 Central Bank News
German Producer Prices +1.9% Y/Y in February, Fastest Increase Since May 2019
The increase was the ninth in a row and represented a significant increase from January’s +0.9% on the year.
19 March 2021 Central Bank News
ECB’s de Cos: Crisis’ Duration Could Cause Liquidity Problems to Become Solvency Problems
In a presentation within a banking supervision report of Banco de España, which he heads, de Cos said that ‘it is important to recognise that the final impact of the crisis on the banking sector will depend both on its magnitude and duration and on the effectiveness of economic policies to mitigate its effects on households and firms.’
18 March 2021 Central Bank News
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 Central Bank News
ECB’s Müller: Shouldn’t Overestimate Role of Long-Term Yields in Recovery
In a speech text posted to the website of the Estonian central bank, which he heads, Müller said that recently risen sovereign bond long-term yields reflected the fact that ‘some optimism about the outlook is returning globally.’
17 March 2021 Central Bank News
German Council of Economic Experts Revises Down 2021 Germany Growth
The expansion would become more robust next year and deliver growth of 4.0% ‘as demand rises worldwide and consumers run down the savings that they have accumulated’, the GCEE said.
17 March 2021 Central Bank News
ECB’s Schnabel: Will Tolerate Higher Interest Rates Only if No Threat to Recovery
In an interview with French financial daily Les Echos posted to the ECB’s website, Schnabel said that the decision in December to target the preservation of favourable financing conditions did ‘not mean that we target a specific yield level.’
17 March 2021 Central Bank News
ECB’s Kazimir: Acceleration of PEPP Purchases a Reaction to Spillover from U.S.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Kazimir, who heads the National Bank of Slovakia, said that the recent increase in sovereign bond yields of the euro area wasn’t ‘dramatic for now’, but that the ECB needed to take into account what is happening in the U.S.
17 March 2021 Central Bank News
ECB’s Elderson: To Look Through Higher Inflation Due to Transitory Factors
In a Twitter interview, Elderson, asked whether the Eurozone was headed for deflation or inflation, said that after the sharp recent rise, inflation was ‘likely to go up further in the coming months.’
16 March 2021 Central Bank News
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 Central Bank News
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 Central Bank News
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 Central Bank News
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 Central Bank News
ECB’s Schnabel: Don’t Read Too Much into Weekly PEPP Purchase Data
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 Central Bank News
ECB’s Rehn: Ready to Unwind in Due Course, But Not Yet; Focus Still on Crisis
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 Central Bank News
ECB’s de Cos: PEPP Duration Depends on Financing Conditions, Inflation
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 Central Bank News
ECB’s Scicluna: Monetary Policy Can’t Step on the Brakes Yet
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 Central Bank News