In World Economy News 30/01/2017
The European Central Bank will probably first review its policy stance in June but stop short of any decision on winding down its huge economic stimulus programme, ECB rate setter Ewald Nowotny said on Monday.
His comments come amid growing calls in Germany for bringing the ECB’s 2.3 trillion euros ($2.45 trillion) bond purchases to an end as inflation there rebounds, far outpacing price growth in weaker economies such as Italy.
Nowotny said rate setters are likely to await the ECB’s June economic forecasts before reassessing their policy stance and, even then, no decision will be made about “tapering” — or gradually ending — the programme, aimed at boosting inflation in the euro zone.
“The discussion about our overall economic assessment will probably (take place) in June,” Nowotny, the Austrian central bank governor, said.
“But this is not a tapering discussion, but we will just see, we now have an inflation forecast, which assumes that the rate of inflation will increase significantly and then we will be able to better assess how this evolves.”
Source: Reuters (Writing By Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt)
