ECB played it safe, keeping all option open - ING

Carsten Brzeski, Chief Economist at ING mentioned that the European Central Bank at today’s meeting dampened optimism and kept the door open for future easing.

Key Quotes:

“As expected, the ECB kept its current wait-and-see stance as caution and risks regarding the outlook for inflation and growth still outweigh any tender optimism.”

“As regards the macro-economic outlook, the ECB still sounds extremely cautious. The strong growth performance in the first quarter was taken as a nice windfall but definitely not for granted.”

“Interestingly, the latest projections were explicitly conditioned both on existing stimulus and also those measures that have been announced, but are yet to be implemented. This means that there currently is a high chance that the ECB will eventually have to top up its monetary measures, rather than starting tapering early.”

“In the absence of any substantial news on monetary policy, the ECB strengthened its language and message for Eurozone governments.”

“With an uncertain few weeks ahead, owing to the next Fed meeting and the British referendum, the ECB played it safe and kept all options open.”