- ECB
The European Central Bank considered expanding its stimulus programme to support Euro zone's struggling economy at its last policy meeting. Moreover, the ECB admitted that the risk increased that the central bank would again miss its inflation target. Even though the ECB's measures proved to be effective, the central bank receives little help from outside as government reform efforts were disappointing and the European Commission investment programme lacked momentum. The minutes of the meeting showed that the threat of growth-sapping deflation has intensified since the ECB's projections in September and the central bank is predicting that the inflation rate will take longer to move back to its 2% goal. Thus, the ECB is left with two options: either to acknowledge that it is unable to fulfil its objective or to take more forceful action with a broader set of tools. The council members said they would re-examine the degree of policy accommodation at its December meeting.
In addition to that, recent speeches from ECB members Peter Praet and Yves Mersch only added to the view that more easing is coming. Another Governing Council member, Ignazio Visco, said that the Paris attack could hurt confidence and make the economic recovery of investment in Europe more difficult to sustain.
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