Longer-term growth trends These cyclical developments have been accompanied by unfavourable long-term global trends affecting economies’ growth potential.
Indeed, there is a growing chorus among  1  2  ECB staff estimates suggest that, had there been no asset purchase programme (including the recalibration of December 2015 but not including the March 2016 package as it is currently assessed by staff in the context of the projection exercise that will become available in June), inflation would have been negative in 2015.