European Central Bank divided over wisdom of declaring end to QE

Article source
Financial Times

The European Central Bank is gearing up for its most important meeting of the year, as senior officials gather to decide the fate of the €2.1tn asset purchase scheme that many credit with breathing life into the eurozone recovery.

At issue is whether the ECB will declare this week that the economy has recovered sufficiently for quantitative easing to end next year — a pronouncement that would reverberate in foreign exchange markets and could shape interest rate expectations.On one side of Thursday’s debate is Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, who would like to preserve room for manoeuvre.

On the other are more hawkish policymakers, notably from Germany, who have long been uncomfortable with the bank’s ultraloose monetary policy and are keen for the ECB finally to bring the curtain down on QE.

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