Couldn’t you have put off the purchases of government bonds a little longer? Some members of the Governing Council are of the opinion that such a measure should only be taken when deflation is a given. Nonetheless, almost all experts believe that it is far more difficult to combat deflation when in the midst of such developments.
In that case, the central bank would have to spend many times as much and would still not be sure that deflation will be overcome successfully. That is the risk we wanted to rule out.