According to reports from the US financial site Bloomberg, the offices of the ECB this week presented to the Board of Governors various options to purchase securities in view of Quantitative Easing, up to an amount of 500 billion euros. Bloomberg quotes two people who attended the board meeting, however, reporting that no specific decision has been made on a possible "quantitative easing" program.
According to the rumors arriving from the Eurotower, various options have been put on the table "focused on the purchase of sovereign bonds": the various plans include the purchase of securities that enjoy the maximum rating ('Aaa') to get to those rated 'Bbb -', i.e. the bottom rung of investment grade. Initially, the hypothesized figure for European Qe was around 1.000 billion euros, double what is leaking out now, probably due to resistance from Germany. Resistance that could become increasingly pressing due to the Greek crisis: the elections in the Greek country are approaching and should decree the victory of Tsipras, who is obviously not appreciated by Berlin.
The next crucial appointment is the meeting that the ECB has scheduled for January 22nd: just 3 days before the early elections in the Hellenic Peninsula, which fall on January 25th. According to some economists, the Central Bank is unlikely to announce such a crucial action close to the vote in Greece. But yesterday's words of Draghi, which today announced that it wants to raise the thresholds of capital for Italian banks, and the rumor relaunched by Bloomberg would seem to give a different signal.
