This explains why we reduced the pace of monthly purchases. But asset purchases matter also for the signals they entail about the path of future policy rates: the so-called “signalling effect”. In the euro area this effect is reinforced by the sequence in which our instruments are ordered.
Specifically, the length of the horizon of our net asset purchases, and the statement that our policy interest rates are expected to remain at their present levels “well past” the end of those net purchases, mechanically affect the time of the first expected rate hike, anchoring the path of expected policy rates over the lifespan of the net asset purchase programme and beyond.