- Title: ECB-RATE DECISION/DRAGHI ECB agrees landmark sovereign bond-buy plan
- Date: 22nd January 2015
- Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (JANUARY 22, 2015) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS SIGN READING (English) 'EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK'
- Embargoed: 6th February 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAF5A398S88XPA033VW8EMU4GBB
- Story Text: The European Central Bank agreed a quantitative easing (QE) programme on Thursday (January 22) that will see it print money to buy up to 60 billion euros worth of sovereign bonds from March until the end of September next year.
The money will include some from existing programmes. Countries under a bailout programme, such as Greece, will be included but with some additional criteria.
The ECB is launching the programme with a view to buoying the flagging euro zone economy, where inflation has turned negative and - at minus 0.2 percent - is far below the central bank's target of just under 2 percent.
"Under this expanded programme the combined monthly purchases of public and private sector securities will amount to 60 billion euros," ECB President Mario Draghi said at a news conference.
"They are intended to be carried out until the end-September 2016 and will in any case be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation."
Draghi said that some additional eligibility criteria will be applied in the case of countries under their EU/IMF adjustment programme. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None