Comments by ECB executive board member, Fabio Panetta
- We will need provide strong monetary stimulus to consolidate the recovery
- Unless there are significant upside surprises, we will use the entire PEPP envelope
- Economic activity is still well below pre-crisis levels
- Our projections show we won't return to those levels before the end of 2022
- Recent data indicates we are making progress, but no grounds for satisfaction
- Estimates March stimulus measures as a whole to produce cumulative increase of 0.8% in inflation and 1.3% in GDP
This mainly reaffirms the expectation that the ECB will continue to hold the market's hand through to the middle of next year at the very least, and that it won't relent on its PEPP stimulus delivery even if the pace of purchases may slow down.
EUR/USD continues to sit firmer on the day, holding just above 1.1700 for now.
