ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said in an interview, “if inflation rates are moving towards our target in the medium term, which is now looking more likely – instead of being well below two per cent as before the pandemic – we will adjust monetary policy”. That’s because, “we would then, for example, no longer need to make asset purchases to stabilise inflation at our target over the medium term.”
“It was different in December, when surveys still showed the expectation that we would need to maintain asset purchases until the middle of next year, but the timeline may be shorter than what people expected then,” he added.
Lane also reiterated the “sequencing” of policy normalization. That is, “our net assets purchases will first be scaled down, then ended. Then, the key policy rates will only increase above their current levels if the conditions consistent with our medium-term inflation target are met. So before we talk about potential rate decisions, we need to end net asset purchases. And we need to prepare the market for the eventual end of these purchases.
