This is of course a rather short period, just over a decade. However, changes in interest rate of this magnitude remain exceptional even if we look at the much longer historical experience of the Deutsche Bundesbank and other major central banks in Europe.
The unconventional policy taken, for which we also coined the term “enhanced credit support”, consisted of four main types of measures: 1. Full allotment and increased maturity of the Eurosystem’s refinancing operations. Already in 2007, the number and allotment volumes of 3 month operations were increased, compared to the weekly main refinancing operations.