We will continue to inform markets to the best of our ability about the state of our thinking about the way forward, making adjustments to our policy as predictable as possible. Predictability and gradualism should also limit the spillovers to Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries when we decide on normalizing our monetary policy.
Indeed, the Federal Reserve “taper tantrum” of May 2013 did lead to sizeable capital outflows from catching-up economies, including in the CESEE region. However, the monetary policy tightening alluded to in Ben Bernanke’s tapering speech came as a surprise to financial markets; as said before, the ECB’s monetary policy normalization aims to be gradual and predictable.