-Mario Draghi, ECB President
Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank President, defended the decision to deploy a massive stimulus plan, based on large-scale purchases of government bonds. Draghi highlighted that such policies are typical for central banks around the globe. However, ECB President also said that the extra liquidity provided by the central bank may pose some risks, but he stressed that those risks were contained. In addition to that, the ECB's bond purchases may be shielding the Euro zone member states from any knock-on impact from developments in Greece.
The ECB's Governing Council approved QE on January 22 despite opposition from Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, who continued to criticize the ECB's intention. The central bank started a policy of printing money to buy sovereign bonds on Monday, in an attempt to support fragile Euro zone's economy and lifting inflation in the currency bloc from below zero levels up towards its goal of just under 2%. The massive asset-buying programme will involve 60 billion euros a month being injected into the Euro zone's economy until September 2016. However, policy makers hinted that the purchases could last longer if inflation does not show signs of returning to the 2% goal, which would result in the eventual size of the programme of over 1 trillion euros.
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