ECB’s Bini Smaghi: Exit from loose policy will be gradual

Executive board member Bini Smaghi says that any exit by the ECB will be gradual. He says there is a risk the market will see the exit from non-standard measures or standard measures as a signal that the other method will be removed as well. He says the ECB is not committed to remove the measures in any particular sequence.

Logically, Asia should exit first, he says, accompanied by currency appreciation. LatAm next, then the US, then the rest of the slowly recovering economies. He must be putting Europe in that last group.

Reading between the lines, the Fed has made clear they will not hike for a very long time. Now a senior ECB official says Europe should follow behind the US. So much for hawkish ECB analysis.