In an interview with Bloomberg, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, responded to a question about when the ECB could start reducing asset purchases by saying that ‘measures have to be maintained as long as necessary … perhaps a little bit postponing the exit is less worrisome than winding down too early.’
9 April 2021
In a statement made at a virtual meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, said that ‘[t]oday the economic outlook seems to be improving at last, thanks also to the rollout of vaccines’.
9 April 2021
Imports were up 3.6% in February compared to January. Compared to February 2020, the last period before the outbreak of the pandemic, exports this February were down a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 2.1%, while imports were up a weak 0.2%.
9 April 2021
In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, Schnabel said that a lasting rise of inflation towards the ECB’s price stability objective would be a welcome sign of an economic pick-up, but that this scenario doesn’t reflect the current situation.
9 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Rehn, who heads the Bank of Finland, said that ‘it’s of course good that we have good news, but I would not jump the gun yet’, given there is ‘still plenty of uncertainty about the speed of vaccine rollout, about the possible extent of virus mutations.’
8 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Knot, who heads the Dutch National Bank, said, ‘If indeed there were to be a delay in the disbursement of the Next Generation EU [NGEU] recovery fund, that would be absolutely a piece of bad news, because I do believe that fiscal policy is really at the forefront of the crisis-fighting policy response here.’
8 April 2021
According to the account, Council members broadly supported ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane’s proposal that the pace of PEPP purchases over the next quarter be ‘significantly higher’ than previously, on the grounds that financing conditions had tightened despite ‘the lack of a material improvement in the growth and inflation outlook.’
8 April 2021
In an interview with CNBC, Holzmann, who heads the Austrian National Bank, noted that the extension of the PEPP in December also involved ‘a change by changing from a volume which needs to be spent, to a volume which can be spent, and if need be, increased.’
8 April 2021
In a statement made at the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and posted to the ECB’s website, Lagarde said that ‘[i]mproving global demand, also spurred by sizeable US fiscal stimulus, and the progress in vaccination campaigns constitute upside risks.’
8 April 2021
Excluding bulk orders, the increase was 1.5%. Although foreign demand posted a monthly drop of 0.5%, that was more than offset by a 4.0% increase in domestic orders. The weakness in foreign orders was due to a 2.3% decline outside the euro area, while new orders from within the region rose 2.7%.
8 April 2021
In an opinion piece published in German business daily Handelsblatt, Lane, who is also chief economist, wrote that while favourable financing conditions are ‘essential’ to restoring inflation, ‘it is also crucial that fiscal support is maintained.’
7 April 2021
At the press conference following the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, urged a ‘state-contingent and data-driven approach when deciding’ about a withdrawal, which in any case should proceed in a ‘gradual and targeted way in order to minimize long-term financial stability risks.’
7 April 2021
In an interview with Reuters, Knot, who heads the Dutch National Bank, said, 'If the economy develops according to our baseline, we will see better inflation and growth from the second half onwards. In that case, it would be equally clear to me that from the third quarter onwards we can begin to gradually phase out pandemic emergency purchases and end them as foreseen in March 2022.'
7 April 2021
In an interview with Reuters, Wunsch, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said that ‘[w]hat has been saved in 2020 and in the beginning of 2021 would be enough to finance growth in private consumption above the level of 2019 for three, four or five years.’
7 April 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Wunsch, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said that monetary policy ‘inflection points need to be handled with care, we’ve seen that with the taper tantrum’.
7 April 2021
‘Containment measures over the past few months have been stricter than anticipated and they will likely stay so in the near future’, Weidmann told Reuters news agency. ‘This has reduced the likelihood that the growth rate of 3% projected in December can still be achieved this year.’
6 April 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The pandemic remains a threat to economic recovery, but various factors support the anticipation of substantial improvement starting in the second half of this year, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Tuesday.
6 April 2021
The stable monthly result masked an increase of 48,000 unemployed persons in the region from January to February. There were 1.507 million more unemployed people in the euro area in February 2021 than in February 2020.
6 April 2021
In an interview with Financial Times, Visco, who heads Banca d’Italia, said that vaccinations rather than monetary or fiscal policy were ‘[t]he main instrument we have at the moment’, but that ‘close international co-operation within the G20’ was needed ‘to avoid that the different stages of the vaccination campaign in the various countries result in excessive divergences of the respective economies.’
4 April 2021
In a blog post on the website of the ECB, Lane, who is also chief economist, said that ‘the increase in inflation during 2021 can be best interpreted as the unwinding of disinflationary forces that took hold in 2020 and does not constitute the basis for a sustained shift in inflation dynamics.’
1 April 2021