On this point, a recent Federal Reserve study of international experience documented the pro-cyclicality of real house prices: House prices have tended to reach a maximum near business cycle peaks, with real GDP growth slowing during the first year or so after house prices peak.
Our decision to activate our Securities Markets Programme (SMP) is designed to help restore a better transmission of our monetary policy. 13. And yet, the purchase of government bonds was probably your most painful and controversial decision in recent years at the helm of the ECB ... Even in normal times all our decisions are very difficult.