AFP, Frankfurt :
European Central Bank policymakers warned of “new headwinds” for the eurozone following Britain’s vote to quit the EU, according to minutes of their July meeting released on Thursday.
“Downside risks had clearly increased,” in the wake of Brexit, noted the accounts made public four weeks after the governing council met last month. The votes and views of particular council members are not revealed.
The ECB policymakers stressed that “the governing council needed to reiterate its capacity and readiness to act,” but there was no more concrete sign in the minutes that the ECB plans to further loosen monetary policy in response to the Brexit vote, which could strike a blow to growth in the eurozone.
In fact, the council did not want to be seen “fostering undue expectations” about how the bank might respond.
ECB president Mario Draghi did announce after July’s meeting that the bank was “ready, willing and able” to intervene if necessary, although he left interest rates and “quantitative easing” measures unchanged until September.
The ECB’s headline deposit rate of interest-paid on money banks store with the central bank-has stood at negative levels since 2014.
Meanwhile, the bank is buying around 80 billion euros ($90.5 billion) of securities a month under its stimulus programme known as quantitative easing (QE) and offering banks cheap loans.
European Central Bank policymakers warned of “new headwinds” for the eurozone following Britain’s vote to quit the EU, according to minutes of their July meeting released on Thursday.
“Downside risks had clearly increased,” in the wake of Brexit, noted the accounts made public four weeks after the governing council met last month. The votes and views of particular council members are not revealed.
The ECB policymakers stressed that “the governing council needed to reiterate its capacity and readiness to act,” but there was no more concrete sign in the minutes that the ECB plans to further loosen monetary policy in response to the Brexit vote, which could strike a blow to growth in the eurozone.
In fact, the council did not want to be seen “fostering undue expectations” about how the bank might respond.
ECB president Mario Draghi did announce after July’s meeting that the bank was “ready, willing and able” to intervene if necessary, although he left interest rates and “quantitative easing” measures unchanged until September.
The ECB’s headline deposit rate of interest-paid on money banks store with the central bank-has stood at negative levels since 2014.
Meanwhile, the bank is buying around 80 billion euros ($90.5 billion) of securities a month under its stimulus programme known as quantitative easing (QE) and offering banks cheap loans.
