Third, it has been a source of additional monetary policy accommodation at a time when the room for cuts in key policy rates has been very limited. Let me explain this last point in more detail, referring back to our forward guidance on the APP.
The impact of asset purchases on market prices is likely to depend critically on how these purchases are communicated to the market. The fact that we chose to communicate, as part of our forward guidance, and from the very beginning, an expectation of the intended horizon of APP purchases is likely to have been a key determinant of the success of the programme.