ECB to maintain stimulus policies – Reuters

The European Central Bank (ECB) is poised to maintain its aggressive stimulus policy in a strategy review, according to several regulatory officials who spoke to Reuters.

The strategy review, which began in March, addresses key aspects of the regulator's work. These include assessing the effectiveness of the quantitative easing tool, which suggests massive bond purchases, as well as the advisability of negative interest rates and recommendations on future rate dynamics.

According to insiders, the eurozone central bank intends to generally maintain its previous course of supporting the region's economy, making only small changes to the strategy that was last updated four years ago.

Belgium's central bank head Pierre Wunsch suggested it might be worth abandoning the ECB quantitative easing program. His Dutch counterpart Klaas Knot and ECB board member Isabelle Schnabel also advocated for a more limited use of bond purchases. According to them, short-term use of this instrument is effective, but long-term use is too costly.