Mario Draghi: "Looking forward, monetary policy will remain accommodative for as long as needed "

Speech by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB,at the Frankfurt European Banking Congress, 20 November 2015:

- A year ago in this venue I said that it was essential to bring back inflation to target without delay, and that monetary policy would do its part to achieve that. In the following months we took the decision to reinforce our credit easing measures and to expand our asset purchase programme...

- There are many reasons why asset purchases should have a strong impact on activity and inflation...

- The macroeconomic impact of our policy on small firms is already clear. In the most recent October round of our survey, the number of SMEs reporting an increase in revenues was almost 20% larger than those which reported the opposite...

- For the first time since 2009, the net percent of firms that register an improvement in business activity has turned positive for all size sub-groups...

- Let me highlight three risks in particular which are relevant for that calibration: the downside risks to our baseline scenario for the euro area economy have increased in recent months due to the deterioration of the external environment  ... the strength of the underlying recovery is modest ... the recovery remains very protracted in historical perspective ...

- In making our assessment of the risks to price stability, we will not ignore the fact that inflation has already been low for some time. Looking forward, monetary policy will remain accommodative for as long as needed to secure a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation ... to 2% over the relevant medium-term horizon...

(source: ECB)

Euro Looks to ECB Comments to Inform QE Expansion Bets:

Comments suggesting the central bank may adopt a restrained approach – such as expanding the spectrum of QE-eligible assets – could push the Euro upward.

G.Hristov / Head of Fundamental Analyzes