Concerning the impact of the purchase programme, it is ultimately the stock of assets in the Eurosystem’s balance sheet which is essential, and less the flow of monthly purchases. Given that reinvestments of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme take place, the stock of securities held by the Eurosystem will not be reduced for the time being.
As a consequence, and taking into account other monetary policy instruments in place, the monetary policy stance of the Eurosystem will be accommodative for a long time to come. The banking sector would, all other things being equal, still have far more central bank money than actually needed for several years.