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The ECB should be more aggressive on monetary policy

The ECB’s promise to do “whatever it takes” has stabilized the euro but its hesitant stance to fight low inflation or even deflation will undermine st

Publishing date
03 March 2014

The case for more aggressive action is strong. Inflation in the euro area has been steadily falling since the end of 2011 and now stands at 0.7%, well below the European Central Bank’s target of below but close to two percent. The consensus inflation forecast estimates a 1.1% rate for 2014, while market-based indicators suggest that inflation will remain below 1.4% at a five year horizon. Clearly, the euro area has been experiencing major disinflationary tendencies. The ECB's bank stress tests and asset quality review could lead banks to further curb lending and also global risk and a euro appreciation could undermine the recovery. In combination, deflationary risks are significant while the risk of overshooting the target is minimal. Yet, debt sustainability in many European countries will look illusionary with low and falling inflation rates. Unsustainable debt would then certainly trigger the next crisis. So what could be done?

The starting point should be more aggressive standard monetary policy. The ECB was slow to cut its main rate last year. The public debate in Germany – that low rates reduce the return on German savings – should not influence the ECB’s decision-making. Monetary policy by its very nature has distributional consequences. The ECB's legitimacy depends solely on fulfilling its mandate, which requires it to contribute to the goals of the European Union, including increased economic and social cohesion, when its price stability mandate is fulfilled. The current disinflation certainly undermines cohesion as it undermines the sustainability of periphery debt. A further reduction in the rate combined with another long-term refinancing operation would be natural and fully within the mandate.

Second, the ECB should take measures to improve directly the credit flow to corporations and households, which is still impaired in the euro-area periphery. Certainly, part of the financial fragmentation is a consequence of the unfinished business of bank balance sheet repair and should be addressed in the asset quality review, the stress test and the subsequent bank restructuring. However, monetary policy should be used to increase the credit flow and avert the risk of deflation. The experience of the last Long-term refinancing operations round (LTRO) was mixed because a lot of the additional liquidity went into the purchase of government bonds instead of credit to firms. The ECB should therefore clearly communicate that it will penalise government bonds in the asset quality review, thereby pushing lending to the real economy. A lowering of collateral standards for credit to firms would be a further instrument.

Third and most controversial would be asset purchases. The purchase of corporate bonds and loan portfolios sold by banks would be relatively uncontroversial and would improve credit conditions in the euro-area periphery. Ending the sterilization of past government bond purchases would also be uncontroversial and push liquidity into the market. More controversial would be the buying of a portfolio of government bonds. It should reduce the spreads between the euro-area periphery and the core but its overall effectiveness is questionable and it will not increase growth and inflation in the core of the euro area by much. Funding conditions for corporations in Germany and France are already very favourable and German corporations in particular rely on abundant internal finance for their investments. For the periphery, however, the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme appears more appropriate as a last recourse measure, which requires a debt-solvency assessment and conditionality.

Overall, more monetary action is clearly advisable and would not require the ECB to go beyond its mandate. In particular, the euro-area periphery would benefit from another LTRO and credit-easing measures. The euro-area core, in particular Germany, needs supply-side reforms, measures to reduce the tax burden on the middle class and increased public investment in order to re-invigorate growth and increase inflation. Monetary policy needs to do more but further government action is also needed.

 

About the authors

  • Guntram B. Wolff

    Guntram Wolff is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and from 2013-22 the director of Bruegel. Over his career, he has contributed to research on European political economy, climate policy, geoeconomics, macroeconomics and foreign affairs. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His co-authored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press.

    An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics. He also regularly testifies to the European Parliament, the Bundestag and speaks to corporate boards. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him one of the 28 most influential “power players” in Europe. From 2012-16, he was a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the external advisory group on surveillance to review the Fund’s priorities. In 2021, he was appointed member and co-director to the G20 High level independent panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the co-chairs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lawrence H. Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. From 2013-22, he was an advisor to the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth. He is a member of the Bulgarian Council of Economic Analysis, the European Council on Foreign Affairs and  advisory board of Elcano.

    Guntram joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in the research department at the Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn. He also worked as an external adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He is fluent in German, English, and French. His work is regularly published and cited in leading media. 

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