ECB Will Stop QE from End of December

The European Central Bank (ECB) will formally bring an end to its multi-trillion bond-buying program -15 billion euros a month to zero at the end of the month.

However, the central bank said Thursday it plans to reinvest cash from maturing bonds for an extended period of time beyond its next interest rate hike.

These purchases are designed to keep borrowing costs down through to sometime in 2021.

The ECB’s asset purchasing program — under which the bank bought more than 2.6 trillion euros ($2.9 trillion) — was introduced in March 2015 in a bid to rescue the euro zone economy from deflationary forces and rebuild confidence.

Reference:

CNBC, Sam Meredith, 2018-12-13, “ECB announces the end of crisis-era stimulus, switches to reinvestments”