Today we didn´t have any decent economic data apart from some low tier releases, so the attention was all on central bankers and we had quite a few of them, especially ECB officials. The ECB president Draghi and his mate Coeure appeared respectively at the European parliament and in Munich this afternoon/evening.
They didn´t touch the monetary policy but some forex traders would argue that the ECB is hinting the market for a continuation of the QE (quantitative Easing) programme as it is. To me, it is almost certain that the current monetary policy will go on after the deadline of the QE programme.
Here are some of the comments:
Draghi
– The Eurozone economic recovery is only running at a moderate pace.
– The ECB will preserve the monetary accommodation will at a degree which will ensure that inflation gets to the 2% target.
Coeure
– The ECB monetary policy is a clear example that the Europeans can act together and they are stronger when they do so.
Villeroy
– The ECB has many options about the monetary policy when the current QE programme is supposed to end and none of them include a sudden stop of bond purchase.
To me, this is as clear as the morning summer sky in Australia. I have only been there once but I can´t forget the amount of sunlight and how clear the sky was. Villeroy is plainly saying that the tapering option for the ECB bond purchases is, well, not an option.
Draghi on the other hand is saying that the ECB will keep the current degree of monthly purchases to get the Eurozone economy to their target, while he also pointed out that the economy is not even close to that target. To me, these comments scream more QE. The world as we know it won´t end in March.