EU monetary policy

World economy 3rd February 2015

“Austerity, not lack of liquidity, is what is causing the Eurozone depression”

MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | She believes that central banks should act coordinately, since competition between them can cause currency distortions. British economist and former banker Frances Coppola has been one of the main critics of the European Central Bank’s QE “because it supports asset prices, but that is all it does.” She spoke to The Corner about shadow banking and how financials should be accepting and managing risk on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Europe 22nd January 2015

QE European style: €60bn monthly bond-buying until Sept 2016

MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | Amid huge market expectation, ECB’s president Mario Draghi unveiled THE operation aiming to spur growth in the eurozone: the European QE will consist of €1.1tn sovereign bonds purchases, or €60bn a month until September 2016, beginning in March. A crucial move in exchange for low risk sharing (only 20% of bonds purchased by ECB, 80% by national central banks; and Greek bonds are expected to remain out). The euro touched an intraday low of 1.1451 dollars.

In Europe 8th January 2015

ECB bound to act

MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | Central bankers would be ill-advised to cave in to pressure from the markets. Yet, the ECB can hardly resist the urgent need to implement a fully-fledged QE programme involving sovereigns. Anything less could end-up sparking a period of vicious turmoil as Syriza seems poised to win the upcoming elections in Greece and the oil market continues to tumble into utter disarray. Such a grim outlook requires drastic action. Would it solve all the current problems? There are plenty of reasons to doubt it.

In Europe 26th December 2014

Germany 2015: Some happy news, yet not enough to revive eurozone’s growth

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The German economy has gone from growing at 0.8% q-o-q earlier this year to being on the verge of recession as a result of the geopolitical situation, especially after the sanctions against Russia. Only now in December the country seems to recover its confidence. However, an expected GDP growth of around 1% in 2015 continues to be insufficient to spur growth in the Eurozone.

Markets 15th December 2014

The ECB easing fails to fly

MADRID | By JP Marín Arrese | Just cast a look at the dismal performance of the medium-term targets of LTRO liquidity tenders, that amount to barely a fifth of the amount pumped in three years ago.

In Europe 13th December 2014

“A change in the ECB’s mandate would be a mistake”

MADRID | The Corner | Former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (2004-2012) and BBVA’s José Manuel González Páramo believes the Frankfurt-based institution may currently have a “a sales problem.” “It operates in a different context from that of the US. Incidentally, the US was starting to realise what was going on in the markets by the end August 2007, when the ECB was already flooding the European market with liquidity. The ECB does not have the mandate of all Europeans to do everything Europe needs: providing liquidity, supervising the banks, acting instead of the Commission where the Commission does not act, acting instead of the Council or lecturing its members…,” he explained.

Markets 10th December 2014

December TLTRO: A window on the ECB’s future actions

By Giuseppe Maraffino (Barclays) | On Thursday, December 11, the ECB will carry out its second TLTRO. The allotment results will be out at about 10:15 London time. The size of the new liquidity injected will be clear on the settlement of the operation, on Wednesday, 17 December, which is also the settlement day of next week’s MRO and of the weekly 3y LTRO repayment. However, the announcement on Friday, December 12, of next week’s 3y LTRO repayment will provide some insights on the new liquidity injected.