AFP, Frankfurt :
One of the members of the European Central Bank’s executive board, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, expressed doubt Thursday that the ECB’s controversial bond purchase programme will have the desired effect.
“Given the current low level of interest rates in the eurozone, I have doubts whether the economic effects of the purchase programme will reach the desired magnitude,” Lautenschlaeger told the weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche in an interview.
The ECB launched a programme of so-called quantitative easing (QE) — or the wide-scale purchase of sovereign bonds-at the beginning of March in order to drive inflation higher in the 19 countries that share the euro and help kick-start economic recovery.
Under the programme, the ECB aims to buy 1.14 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) worth of bonds between now and September 2016 at a rate of 60 billion euros per month.
One of the members of the European Central Bank’s executive board, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, expressed doubt Thursday that the ECB’s controversial bond purchase programme will have the desired effect.
“Given the current low level of interest rates in the eurozone, I have doubts whether the economic effects of the purchase programme will reach the desired magnitude,” Lautenschlaeger told the weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche in an interview.
The ECB launched a programme of so-called quantitative easing (QE) — or the wide-scale purchase of sovereign bonds-at the beginning of March in order to drive inflation higher in the 19 countries that share the euro and help kick-start economic recovery.
Under the programme, the ECB aims to buy 1.14 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) worth of bonds between now and September 2016 at a rate of 60 billion euros per month.
