Draghi’s Anti-Taper Keeps ECB Stimulus Live for 2017’s Risks
- ECB president sets new QE end-date with option to extend again
- Balance sheet to expand to almost 40 percent of euro-area GDP
ECB's Draghi: Tapering Has Not Been Discussed Today
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Mario Draghi’s message to investors on the future of his quantitative-easing program on Thursday could have been boiled down to three words: less is more.
Strenuously denying a “taper” is in place -- or was even discussed by policy makers -- the European Central Bank president cut the institution’s monthly bond buying to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) from 80 billion euros. He also added three more months of purchasing than economists expected, and followed up by saying quantitative easing is essentially open-ended and inflation will remain too feeble well past the supposed new end-date.