Today, minutes of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting held in January 23, 2020, will be published.
At the first meeting of 2020, the ECB did not change the interest rates in line with the market expectations. ECB had decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50%, respectively. In the press release on the monetary policy decisions, ECB stated that the interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it has seen the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to 2%. In addition, ECB noted that the asset purchases will end shortly before it starts raising the interest rates.
ECB President Christine Lagarde, at the press conference following the decision, stated that the data are in line with the main scenario of the ECB. She also highlighted that there are upbeat signals and that there is still a need for stimulus in order to increase the inflation. She gave the signals of starting “structural reforms” and said, “As our economies are undergoing profound changes, it is the time for a strategy review to ensure we deliver on our mandate in the best interest of Europeans.”
The most important topic of today’s minutes, which will be published at 13:30 (GMT +1), will be the Monetary Policy Strategy Review uttered by the President Lagarde. Although the preliminary publication for the strategic review, which will be held for the first time since 2003 and aimed at determining the main target of the bank as well as the means to achieve this, was published on the official website of the ECB. However, in the minutes, the Bank’s reasons and especially the tendency of the committee members after 17 years will be an important aspect. In the minutes, we will also follow the clues on how the ECB will take action against coronavirus risks, which open the gates for global growth concerns, and how it can stretch its current expansionary stance with unconventional policies, especially by maintaining the targeted inflation path.
