Following our communication on our reaction function in the first half of last year1, interest rates had in fact been falling consistently over the months preceding the launch of APP, as markets began to price in our likely response to a prolonged period of too-low inflation.
Taking the GDP-weighted average of the euro area 10-year government bond yields, yields fell by around 150 basis points between early June 2014 and early March 2015, interest rates had in fact been falling consistently over the months preceding the launch of APP, as markets began to price in our likely response to a prolonged period of too-low inflation.