ECB Member Outlines Possible Asset Purchase Scenarios

A top European Central Bank policymaker on Sunday described how the ECB would approach an asset purchase plan to tackle low inflation, stressing such a program “would not be about quantity, but about price.”

Euro zone inflation is running at 0.5 percent – far below the ECB’s target of just under 2 percent over the medium term.

The ECB opened the door after its policy meeting earlier this month to turning on its money-printing presses to keep inflation from staying too low, though it shows no sign of embarking on such quantitative easing (QE) just yet.

“Asset purchases are an instrument that we are ready to use if we deem necessary,” Benoit Coeure, who sits on the ECB’s six-member Executive Board, said a speech at a conference organized by the International Monetary Fund.

“Further monetary easing is … not excluded, but remains contingent on outcomes,” Coeure said. “If such easing is called for, the Governing Council is unanimous in its commitment to use also unconventional instruments within its mandate.”

Coeure said the ECB would have to decide whether asset buys would be useful and added what he called “a few qualifying remarks” about possible targeted asset purchases by the ECB.

via Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza