5 things to know about the ECB’s QE ahead of key meeting

After a long wait, the European Central Bank is about to get going on its most ambitious and aggressive easing action ever: its trillion-euro quantitative-easing program.

On Thursday, the central bank should trickle out more details on what shape the QE will take, when it holds its regular meeting. Until then, here are the five most important thing we know about the scheme.

When will the QE start?

It could be any day now. ECB Executive Board member Benoît Coeuré has said the central bank will start buying bonds in the first two weeks of March, most likely after the Governing Council meeting on Thursday. And according to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, which spoke to unnamed sources, the first purchases will take place on Monday, March 9. Expect questions on the start date at Thursday’s meeting.

What’s the aim of the QE?

The short answer: to revive growth and inflation in the eurozone. Despite a variety of attempts to spur economic recovery, the currency bloc is still grappling with painfully high unemployment, slow growth and negative inflation among its members.

Of course, these aren’t new problems for the ECB. It’s faced setbacks to economic recovery for years, in which it didn’t resort to QE. So why now? The threat of deflation was the final straw that pushed the central bank to get out the big bazooka.

Falling consumer prices aren’t a big concern in the short term. But if consumers start to postpone purchases, there could be serious fallouts for the economy, such as high unemployment and recession. It also makes debt more expensive to repay.

With QE, the ECB is sending another signal that it’s willing to go all out to save the eurozone — another factor behind the program, economists say.