After two years of robust expansion, global growth is waning. As a result, (almost) all major central banks have had to put monetary policy normalisation on hold and instead to maintain an accommodative policy stance. This holds true for the ECB as well. On Wednesday, the ECB Governing Council concluded that an ample degree of monetary accommodation remains necessary to support the economic expansion.
Significant monetary policy stimulus is indeed being provided by our forward guidance on the key ECB interest rates, reinvestments by a sizable stock of acquired assets, and the new series of targeted long-term refinancing operations.