The ECB’s main priority will be to fuel confidence in the financial markets and inflation will be its alibi for this. In February, eurozone CPI receded to -0.2% year-on-year and, in the short term, the region should be prepared for negative rates to continue.
Goldman Sachs | While we expect that the combination of the fall in oil prices, the rise in the Euro and the weakening of equity prices will have relatively limited effects on growth, the effects on the near-term inflation outlook are likely to be much more substantial.
Francesco Saraceno | Yesterday Mario Draghi has called once more for other policies to support the ECB titanic (and so far vain) effort to lift the eurozone economy out of its state of semi-permanent stagnation. I just have two very quick (related) comments.
The ECB has committed to reviewing its monetary policy at its March meeting, leaving the door open to implementing any (monetary) instruments it has at its disposal. Thus the central bank is acknowledging the increasing downside risks and the deterioration in inflation, failing to meet end-2015 expectations and discounting low or even negative CPI rates in the European Monetary Union over the coming months. But the question now is whether its commitment will satisfy the markets.
UBS | Our base case forecasts for China’s growth are already below consensus at 6.2% for 2016 and 5.8% for 2017. In this note we study the impact on global economies and assets of a much darker and, in our view, extremely unlikely scenario where China real GDP growth slips to 4%, and nominal growth below 1.5%.
BARCLAYS | We believe a further expansion in ECB QE will only have regional, and overall limited , effects on EM. Extending the discussion to the effect of BoJ QE, we come to similar conclusions.
The market has already priced in that the ECB will adopt new monetary stimulus measures at tomorrow’s meeting, which in theory should boost growth and inflation in the eurozone. Analysts agree that more aggressive measures are necessary, but due care must be taken not to damage financial stability.
The markets are seemingly focusing on next week ECB’s meeting rather than on geopolitical events. Investors expect they will take new measures on expansionary monetary policy. Yesterday, ECB’s vice president Vitor Constancio, insisted again that the central bank will analyse those if needed to reach the inflation target of 2%.
James Alexander via Historinhas | You have to feel for ECB President Draghi sometimes. He’s trying to steer a huge and dysfunctional ship. His heart is in the right place, but he has far too much faith in the interest rate and credit channel “instruments” for the management of monetary policy. They have prevented further recessions and do seem to have the Euro area on the right track, but it is painfully slow and risky .
The market has already discounted that the ECB will announce new stimulus measures on December 3rd, modifying the current debt purchasing programme. But monetary policy only goes so far, and apart from the central bank’s measures, the Eurozone needs more public and private investment to recover its growth potential.