However, measures that prove effective and appropriate in a crisis may not be needed when normal conditions are restored. Even more importantly, the temporary nature of the non-conventional measures is an important device to ensure the anchoring of longterm inflation expectations. Finally, the ECB’s liquidity measures were specifically targeted to the banking sector.
The costs of setting a bad precedent or weakening the credibility of MAP, and particularly of its countercyclical nature, are hardly quantifiable, but I suspect that they would be very high indeed.