With the labour market becoming tighter, wage growth has picked up more dynamically in the recent years, supporting domestic demand. The euro is as popular today as ever before in its 20-year history. I’ve lived in Germany myself for two years. Why does one hear so much dissent on monetary policy?
This reaction, which contrasts with the general approval that our measures received in the rest of the world, might partly be explained by the novelty of our measures, and partly by the way central banks’ communications channels work in the eurozone. Banks, insurance companies, pension funds, business models and savers’ behaviours needed to adapt to QE and negative interest rates and this wasn’t easy.