Eurozone quantitative easing was launched to save the single currency bloc. But it may end up making it easier to break the eurozone apart.
Since it was launched this month, the European Central Bank’s open-ended programme of €60bn a month in asset purchases has succeeded in dropping government borrowing costs to record lows. By weakening the euro, it has also boosted exports, sent equities soaring and raised hopes of a eurozone recovery.
But in so doing, it may also be masking the pain of a potential Greek exit from the euro — a prospect that once terrified financial markets and the country’s eurozone partners but no longer seems so frightening to them.