By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Monday said that although the current order of vaccination must continue for now, vaccination should be opened to everyone no later than June.
3 May 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – German economic output fell a real, seasonally and calendar-adjusted 1.7% on the quarter in the first quarter of 2021, the German Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday.
30 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Monetary policy normalisation will be harder than flooding the economy with liquidity, European Central Bank Governing Council member Pierre Wunsch said Friday.
30 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Philip Lane on Thursday characterised the situation of the euro area economy as an inflection point but offered no hint as to whether he drew from that the conclusion that monetary policy must also be approaching one.
29 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Consumer prices in Germany accelerated for the fourth month in a row in April, growing at an annualized 2.0%, according to the flash estimate of the German Federal Statistical Office on Thursday.
29 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The measures introduced by the European Central Bank to address the pandemic-related crisis must end once the pandemic ends, Governing Council member and German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said Thursday.
29 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The annual growth of bank lending in the euro area slowed noticeably in March compared to February, while the growth rate of household loans sped up, according to data released by the European Central Bank on Thursday.
29 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s strategy review should lead to a monetary policy strategy that incorporates much of what the ECB has done over the last ten years, but should also allow for a ‘clearer role for full employment and balanced economic growth’, Governing Council member Mario Centeno said Wednesday.
29 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Monetary and fiscal policy have to continue supporting Europe’s economy, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday.
28 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank can change any aspect of its pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) at any moment if warranted, Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said on Wednesday.
28 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – German Bundesbank Board member Burkhard Balz on Wednesday said that rather than preserving a specific level of market interest rates, monetary policy needed to focus on keeping financing conditions, which should move with the recovery, from tightening prematurely.
28 April 2021
In an interview with Lithuanian news portal LRT.lt, Šimkus, who took over the helm of the Bank of Lithuania earlier this month, was asked whether a hike in the ECB’s key interest rate in a few years was likely.
27 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Early last October, medical science remained far from being able to offer a proven solution to the Covid-19 pandemic; despite relevant processes being vastly expedited, the first approval was still months away. A solution was sorely needed in Spain, among many other places, as the country was in the midst of its largest wave of new cases thus far.
27 April 2021
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Tuesday indicated that he felt the existing EU fiscal rules were sufficiently flexible.
27 April 2021
In an article for the magazine Economistas, de Cos, who heads Banco de España, said that ‘the high uncertainty and fragility of the recovery in the euro area, medium-term inflation expectations that are well below our objective, and nominal effective exchange rate developments that in recent months have offset much of our stimulus, suggest that there is no room for complacency with regard to monetary policy.’
26 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta killed two birds with one stone on Monday, turning a treatise on whether globalisation hinders monetary policy’s domestic objectives – in particular by engendering spillovers that render financing condition favourability an effectively exogenous variable - into another plea for continued policy support.
26 April 2021
In a speech at a joint BIS, BoE, ECB and IMF conference, a copy of which was made available by the ECB, Panetta said that ‘monetary and fiscal policies should work together to deliver a stronger and more inclusive recovery, reducing the risk of inflation undershooting our aim for a prolonged period’, he said. ‘This is the best way to avoid lasting scars.’
26 April 2021
The German Ifo business climate index rose 0.2 point, the third monthly increase, to 96.8. However, while companies surveyed were happier about their current situation, their expectations for the next six months became less optimistic, the institute said.
26 April 2021
In an interview with German weekly Bild am Sonntag, Scholz said that the preconditions for clarity were stable case numbers and more vaccinations.
25 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller said Friday that since market interest rates hadn’t risen further, the ECB had no reason to do anything at last week’s monetary policy meeting.
23 April 2021