Member of the ECB’s Executive Board, Sabine Lautenschläger, is out on the wires, via Reuters, providing the key quotes found below.
We are seeing that the pace of growth has become more moderate, but we are not seeing a turning point.
We remain confident in the strength of the economy.
All the conditions for inflation to kick in are in place.
Even when we end net purchases, monetary policy will still be extraordinarily accommodative.
A first hike around the middle of 2019 is not entirely out of the ballpark.
We are slowly but surely moving towards the exit.
Changing our objective could undermine the markets’ confidence in the ecb’s commitment to price stability.
There is a risk that we might become a drag on market liquidity, in particular in some segments of the corporate bond markets.
Aiming for a higher inflation rate, making non-standard tools a standard part of the toolbox underestimate the associated costs.
A comprehensive asset purchase programme, such as the current one, should only be used to fight a real risk of deflation.
Hanging our objective could undermine the markets’ confidence in the ecb’s commitment to price stability.
June might be the month to decide once and for all to gradually end net asset purchases by the end of this year.
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