“The ECB is absolutely determined to maintain a highly accommodative monetary policy and to act swiftly if necessary.” This is what the governor of the Eurotower, Mario Draghi, declared to the IMFC - the International Monetary Financial Committee -, the operational arm of the International Monetary Fund.
Draghi's words in Washington follow the question and answer of the last few weeks between Frankfurt and Washington. In the last few hours it was the director general of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, who toned down the controversy. Siding with her chief economist, who believes an ECB action is "better sooner than later", Lagarde however claims to have faith in the ECB, which has the "pulse of the situation", and says she is "encouraged" by the central bank's recent statements European Union on possible new measures against the risk of inflation.
In any case, the number one of the Eurotower, while not ruling out new expansive monetary policy measures, said that "the risks of an increase or decrease in inflation are limited in the short term and balanced in the medium", thus cooling the hypothesis of an imminent deflationary spiral in the Eurozone.
In particular, the number one of the Eurotower explained that the inflation rate in the euro area, currently abundantly below 1%, will gradually return close to 2%, the medium-term target of price level stability, at the end of 2016.
