Resisting full-blown QE... for now

After making radical changes to unconventional policy just a few weeks ago, further alterations seem unlikely this month. The ECB will give little away about the size and type of future bond purchases. For now, it will stress that its actions are being “sterilised” to offset any potential inflationary implications. But with the grim economic outlook suggesting that deflation is the bigger risk, we suspect that it might yet be forced into full-blown “quantitative easing”. Either way, official interest rates will be on hold for the foreseeable future.