Some might say that they have taken us close to the limits of the ECB’s mandate. And others might even argue that they have taken us past those limits. At the same time, many people here in Germany argue that the ECB’s policy has many negative effects. They feel that low interest rates penalise savers, hurt banks and destroy wealth.
Since the start of the year the trading volume in the secondary securities market has been raised substantially from € million to € million on a daily average and the repo transaction volume has reached € billion from 0 three years ago. As far as the benchmark is concerned, the 10-year GGB is currently trading at a yield of around 3.9%, i.e.