ECB Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said in a Reuters interview that the asset purchase program should continue until at least the end of the year, to cushion the fallout from the Ukraine crisis.
He said, “judging the situation from today’s point of view, I would rather favour a continuation of the APP at least until the end of the year, beyond September, rather than bringing the end closer… I wouldn’t be in favour of announcing the end of APP in March.”
Stournaras added that the crisis was bound to depress prices “in the medium to long term” after an initial spike.”In my view it is going to have a short-term inflationary effect – that is prices will increase due to higher energy costs,” he said. “But in the medium to long term I think that the consequences will be deflationary through adverse trade effects and of course through the rise in energy prices.”
