Mario Draghi’s latest bid to revive the eurozone economy by extending unprecedented monetary easing yesterday failed to impress markets that had bet on even more.
The European Central Bank pledged to continue its €60bn-a-month bond buying programme for another six months until March 2017 “or beyond”. Policymakers also cut a key interest rate to a historic low of minus 0.3 per cent and agreed to buy more assets with the proceeds of its existing bond purchases.
But these measures — supported by a decision to buy municipal bonds in addition to standard government debt — disappointed investors who had hoped for deeper rate cuts and more monthly bond purchases.