Jens Weidmann blows everyone away. The president of the Bundesbank opened up, surprisingly, to the hypothesis of a European quantitative easing to counter the threat of excessive appreciation of the euro, heralding deflation. For the same reason, according to Weidmann, the ECB could also bring rates down into negative territory.
“Naturally any public or private asset that we were to buy would have to meet certain quality standards – said Weidmann, who is a member of the ECB's governing council, in an interview with MNI -. The basic question, however, is that of effectiveness, costs and side effects. We are currently discussing the effectiveness of these measures. And the desired effects must be weighed against the costs and possible side effects”.
Meanwhile, the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, guaranteed that the Eurotower remains "ready to act" to maintain price stability and that interest rates will remain at current levels or even lower for an extended period of time.
