• Lagarde's debut at the ECB. Saudi Aramco, new exploit
  • Bce, Lagarde: "If growth does not improve, we have tools and we will use them"
  • Lagarde: "Persistent uncertainties, but ECB will continue to support the economy"

Share

December 12, 2019The ECB's interest rates will remain "at current or lower levels" until inflation appears to be "robustly converging" towards the 2% annual target.

The ECB president, Christine Lagarde, at a press conference in Frankfurt, adds that Qe (quantitative easing) will remain as long as necessary. "On the basis of the usual economic and monetary analysis, we have decided to leave the reference interest rates unchanged. We expect them to remain at or below current levels until we see inflation prospects converge firmly on a sufficiently near but lower level at 2% in our projection horizon and this convergence will not be reflected consistently in the dynamics of underlying inflation ", specified Lagarde illustrating the decisions of his first Board of Directors.

Review of the strategy by 2020
"There is nothing strange in doing a review of the strategy, the last one we did in 2003, so it is more than legitimate to do so. It must be complete, analyze every point and take its time but it will not take too long" said the president of the ECB. "It is our intention that the review begin in January and be completed by the end of 2020. We will consult not only the usual but also members of parliament, experts in the world of finance and representatives of civil society. We will not only try to preach our gospel but also to listen to the people we are addressing ".

Confirmed monetary stimuli
As widely expected. The Governing Council kept the rate on the main refinancing operations at zero, at least 0.50 per cent the deposit rate and at 0.25 per cent the marginal refinancing rate. The ECB also confirmed the new program of net purchases of securities at the rate of 20 billion euros a month, as well as its open maturity. The operations will continue "as long as necessary to strengthen the impact of accommodating the reference rates," reads the statement released at the end of the operational meeting under the leadership of the new president Christine Lagarde, who then illustrated the measures at the press conference.