President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, announced today the purchase of assets amounting to 60 billion euros per month, in order to stimulate growth and address the threat of deflation. He clarified, the purchases of government bonds will be based on the ECB’s capital, ie. the share of the national central banks in the ECB’s capital. Regarding the purchase of Greek assets, the ECB President highlighted that “additional eligibility criteria will be applied in the case of countries under a European Union/ International Monetary Fund adjustment program.” “The ECB has decided to launch an expanded program of asset purchases, which will include existing programs for abs and covered bonds,” Mr. Draghi further explained. As declared In detail, the ECB will oversee and coordinate the markets to ensure the Eurozone’s monetary policy, while the purchase of bonds will begin in March 2015 and will continue until the end of September 2016. “Under this expanded program the combined monthly purchases of public and private sector securities will amount to 60 billion euros,” the ECB President said during a press conference. “They are intended to be carried out until end of September 2016 and will in any case be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation,” he added. It should be noted that the ECB is launching the program with a view to buoying the troubled Eurozone, where inflation has turned negative (at -0.2%) and is far below the Bank’s target of just under 2%. Earlier today, the ECB Governing Council announced that it kept interest rates at historically low levels, confirming analysts’ estimates. In particular, it was decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively, or on an emergency overnight borrowing rate for banks at 0.3%.
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