January 21st local time, the Council of the European Central Bank was held in Germany. At the meeting, the Council of the European Central Bank decided to reiterate its very loose monetary policy position.
First, the interest rates of major refinancing operations, marginal loan instruments and deposit instruments will remain unchanged at 0, 0.25% and -0.50% respectively.
The Council expects the ECB’s main interest rates to remain at current or lower levels until the inflation outlook steadily converges to the level that is sufficiently close to but below 2% within its forecast.
Second, the ECB Council will continue to make purchases under the emergency procurement program during the COVID-19 pandemic, totaling €1,850 billion.
The Board will make net asset purchases based on the situation by at least March 2022, in any case until the Council determines that the COVID-19 crisis phase is over.
Third, net purchases under the asset purchase plan will continue to grow at a rate of 20 billion euros a month.
The Council continues to expect that the monthly net asset purchase activity will continue until the necessary time to strengthen the adaptive impact of its policy interest rate and end shortly before the ECB key interest rate increase begins.
Fourth, the Council of the European Central Bank will continue to provide sufficient liquidity through its financing activities.
In particular, the third series of targeted long-term refinancing operations remain an attractive source of funding for banks, supporting bank loans to businesses and households.
The Council of the European Central Bank continues to be ready to adjust all its instruments to ensure that inflation achieves its goals in a sustainable manner in accordance with its commitment to symmetry.
