ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos defended the central bank’s decision to ended the asset purchase program this month, without any further stimulus exit said. He said that “We’re in a dark room that sometimes gets a bit darker, and when you are in a dark room you have to be very cautious and try to keep your optionality at the maximum level,”
Governing Council member Vitas Vasiliauskas warned of growing risks in 2019. He said “next year the balance of risk is more likely to turn in a negative direction but for the moment, because risks and economic data are quite mixed, yesterday’s meeting still described the risk outlook as balanced,”
Another Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said the central bank should ends the negative deposit rate policy as son as possible. He said, “My personal view is that specifically this rate, that is this phenomenon of negative interest rates, should be reconsidered as soon as economically possible.” He added, “It is also a specificity of the ECB. The U.S. never had a negative rate.”
