Despite heightened global uncertainty, “solid and widespread” economic growth of the euro area will continue in line with expectations, but it still remains appropriate "significant monetary stimulus” and, if necessary, the European Central Bank will be ready to recalibrate the tools at its disposal. The said it president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, in the press conference at the end of the Governing Council which confirmed the monetary policy guidelines on Thursday: the Quantitative easing will end in December (but from October purchases will be reduced from 30 to 15 billion euros per month), while the interest rates they will remain at historic lows at least until the summer of next year and in any case until inflation in the Eurozone returns steadily to the levels set as a target by the Eurotower (ie at a rate “below but close to 2%”). The European Central Bank has also confirmed its intention to keep the bonds accumulated up to now "for a long time", renewing them at maturity even well after the conclusion of the Qe.
In any case, Draghi stressed that uncertainty about the prospects for price recovery is diminishing and towards the end of the year there will be a strengthening of core inflation, the one purified from the more volatile components such as energy and unprocessed food: "We see encouraging signs here and there - he specified - but it is really too early to declare victory".
As for theperformance of the single currencyDraghi reiterated that the central bank does not set targets for exchange rate levels, however it is undeniable that in the last year and a half the euro has shown a "significant" appreciation in spite of ample monetary stimuli.
On the commercial side, on the day of historic Trump-Juncker deal, the President of the central institution reiterated that to date duties announced by the US and other economic powers on international trade have produced a "limited impact, but obviously with a large-scale trade war that would change".
