-Mario Draghi, ECB President
The European Central Bank is unlikely to stop its bond-buying programme earlier than planned, according to economists' expectations. Some believed that the ECB will carry on with its QE scheme till September 2016 and then stop it abruptly without tapering purchases. Others said policy makers would steadily wind the programme down, with the end-date ranging from December 2016 to December 2017. To underpin inflation, the ECB plans to expand its balance sheet to about 3.1 trillion euros from 2.3 trillion euros currently, by buying government bonds, agency debt and private securities. Economists saw that level will be surpassed in 2016 and reach 3.4 trillion euros by the end of that year. Whether the stimulus has started to work should be evident this week with data expected to show the inflation rate rebounding to zero in the current month, after four months of falling consumer prices. On top of that, it is anticipated that unemployment was probably at the lowest rate in three years and economic confidence reached its the strongest level since 2011.
Meanwhile, Greece—is a major headache for the ECB currently. The board of directors will meet on April 29 to decide how much emergency liquidity should be extended to keep Greek banks afloat and on what conditions.
© Dukascopy Bank SA