ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said yesterday that it had “left the door ajar” for more asset purchases if the impact of Russia invasion of Ukraine turn out to be much worse.
“If we now fall into a deep recession due to the Ukraine crisis, we’ll have to rethink that,” she said. “Otherwise, we’ll end the bond purchases in the third quarter and as soon as we’ve done that we can raise rates at any time depending on how inflation develops.”
Separately, Governing Council member Mario Centeno emphasized “normalization of the ECB’s monetary policy will be carried out gradually and proportionally at the end of this year”.
