Phasing out support despite peripheral crisis

The ECB faces the difficult task this month of weighing up the periphery’s disastrous situation on the one hand and pretty strong growth in the core euro-zone economies on the other. With the region’s governments supposedly dealing with the fiscal crisis, the Bank will probably focus more on the positive economic data and continue to phase out its unconventional policy support. But it will not be long before growth falters throughout the region and, once that happens, we hope that the ECB will be prepared to join other central banks with bolder unconventional measures.