ECB keeps stimulus on high even as economy picks up
FRANKFURT — The head of the European Central Bank has warned there is still little sign of an enduring pick-up in shop prices and workers’ wages in the eurozone — a symptom of economic weakness that means the bank will leave its stimulus programs running nearly full blast at least until year-end.
The bank’s 25-member governing council led by President Mario Draghi made no changes in its interest rates or bond-buying stimulus program at a meeting Thursday.
Attention was focused on his news conference, where he stressed that the bank is determined to keep pumping newly printed money into the economy through bond purchases despite criticism from stimulus skeptics.
The purchases are aimed at boosting inflation from dangerously low levels and supporting an economy that’s slowly gathering steam.