ECB’s de Guindos: I see inflation approaching the ECB's target
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Dhwani Mehta
webinar date
05 Feb @ 08:14 (GMT+0)

ECB’s de Guindos: I see inflation approaching the ECB's target

European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday that “I see inflation approaching the ECB's target.”

Further comments

I'm not sure where ECB interest rates will end up.

Neutral rate is not very useful in policy setting.

May see inflation tick up in the next months on energy.

The vicious circle of trade tariffs should be avoided.

Market reaction

EUR/USD keeps its range near 1.0400 following these comments, up 0.22% on the day.

ECB FAQs

The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany, is the reserve bank for the Eurozone. The ECB sets interest rates and manages monetary policy for the region. The ECB primary mandate is to maintain price stability, which means keeping inflation at around 2%. Its primary tool for achieving this is by raising or lowering interest rates. Relatively high interest rates will usually result in a stronger Euro and vice versa. The ECB Governing Council makes monetary policy decisions at meetings held eight times a year. Decisions are made by heads of the Eurozone national banks and six permanent members, including the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde.

In extreme situations, the European Central Bank can enact a policy tool called Quantitative Easing. QE is the process by which the ECB prints Euros and uses them to buy assets – usually government or corporate bonds – from banks and other financial institutions. QE usually results in a weaker Euro. QE is a last resort when simply lowering interest rates is unlikely to achieve the objective of price stability. The ECB used it during the Great Financial Crisis in 2009-11, in 2015 when inflation remained stubbornly low, as well as during the covid pandemic.

Quantitative tightening (QT) is the reverse of QE. It is undertaken after QE when an economic recovery is underway and inflation starts rising. Whilst in QE the European Central Bank (ECB) purchases government and corporate bonds from financial institutions to provide them with liquidity, in QT the ECB stops buying more bonds, and stops reinvesting the principal maturing on the bonds it already holds. It is usually positive (or bullish) for the Euro.