Recent conduct of monetary policy  A.  Quantitative and qualitative monetary easing and market reactions  At the Monetary Policy Meeting (MPM) held on April 3 and 4, 2013, the Bank introduced quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE).
Available tools include increases in reserve requirements and the conduct of liquidity absorbing operations including not only short-term but also longer-term deposits. Hence, there are tools and the Governing Council can use them as needed. Moreover, our balance sheet has grown and shrunk in the past without creating inflation – for example, this was evident over the course of both 2009 and 2010.