- Klaas Knot, ECB policy maker
Euro zone's current account surplus rose to 30.0 billion euros in September compared with the upwardly revised 22.88 billion surplus in the previous month. The indicator is important for the long-term confidence of investors and trading partners, as a positive current account balance signals that the entity is a net lender to the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Klaas Knot, the Dutch Central Bank President questioned the effectiveness of additional QE steps from the ECB, which may also include purchases of government bonds. Knot said that it is not certain whether such measures would help fight stubbornly low inflation in the currency bloc. He also added that there is no sense to pursue buying government bonds now, as many Euro zone's nations can borrow at historically low rates, as well as the ECB has already implemented a large number of measures to combat disinflationary trend, but it needs some time for them to prove effective. He believes that the main catalyst behind cooling inflation is falling oil prices and he stressed that there is no evidence of deflation for now. At the same time the latest study of the French Economic Observatory reveals that the falling value of the Euro should limit risk of deflation and help economies grow in 2015. Spain is projected to be the biggest winner. The think tank believes that the Euro will continue depreciate next year as well.
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