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11 Dec 2015
ECB balance sheet: The road to EUR3 trillion - Westpac
FXStreet (Delhi) – Sean Callow, Research Analyst at Westpac, notes that since March 2015, the ECB asset purchase program has comprised ABS and covered bonds (around EUR10bn/month), EZ government, agency and supranational debt, for a total of EUR60bn per month.
Key Quotes
“Many were disappointed that this monthly pace was not increased at the Dec 2015 meeting but the ECB did agree to extend the purchases until at least Mar 2017, or as long as inflation
is not projected to rise sustainably to the ECB’s near-2% target.”
“The ECB will also reinvest maturing bonds to help keep the balance sheet trending firmly higher. Still, these steps were viewed as the bare minimum the ECB could have done, meaning a rare “miss” by ECB president Draghi relative to expectations.”
Key Quotes
“Many were disappointed that this monthly pace was not increased at the Dec 2015 meeting but the ECB did agree to extend the purchases until at least Mar 2017, or as long as inflation
is not projected to rise sustainably to the ECB’s near-2% target.”
“The ECB will also reinvest maturing bonds to help keep the balance sheet trending firmly higher. Still, these steps were viewed as the bare minimum the ECB could have done, meaning a rare “miss” by ECB president Draghi relative to expectations.”