ECB’s Lane: ‘QE extension was needed to hit inflation target over medium-term

Reuters reports the comments delivered by the ECB Governing Council member and Irish Central Bank Governor Philip Lane over the weekend, during an exclusive interview with The Sunday Business Post.

Key Points:

"To hit the inflation target over the medium term, more is needed ... So the extension that we've done, which is an open-ended extension, is saying we're not in no way declaring a victory yet."

"If 60 billion euros was the right number a year ago 30 billion euros is a reasonable recalibration."

"At this point after the last year of purchases the mountain of assets that we hold is much bigger and the bigger stock in itself is suggesting you need to reduce the monthly net purchase ... so that indicates it's too early to set a date for when interest rates might move."

"It's important to recognize what we have now is not normal and that it's not going to last for an indefinite period, that there's enough signals of recovery, that the next phase when interest rates move again it's within the foreseeable horizon."