Necessity To put these watchwords in context, let me recall the economic conditions at the time the ECB decided to implement unconventional measures. The euro area economy had undergone a double-dip recession. Inflation outcomes flirted with deflation, and there were signs that inflation expectations were becoming de-anchored. The transmission of monetary policy across the whole euro area was impaired.
Fiscal policy offered little by way of countercyclical stabilisation. Traditional monetary policy had reached its limits, with nominal interest rates close to zero and some contemporary measures of real equilibrium interest rates below zero. The choice for the ECB at the time was stark.