Draghi tried not to rock the boat in the July meeting, but the door is certainly open for more easing. Will it send the euro lower? Here are opinions from SEB and Danske:
Here is their view, courtesy of eFXnews:
ECB To Extend QE Program After The Summer Break – SEB
In line with our expectation, the ECB Governing Council left its monetary policy stance unchanged after today’s meeting. The council decided to leave its policy rates unchanged. The Governing Council expects them to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases. The asset purchase program with a monthly volume of EUR 80bn is intended to run until the end of March 2017, or beyond, if necessary.
The parameters of the programme remained unchanged. The ECB Governing Council continues to hold an easing bias. According to its Introductory Statement, the council stands ready to increase its efforts to reach its aim of price stability over the medium term by using all instruments available within its mandate. In the press conference ECB President Draghi avoided any strong hint that the ECB Governing Council will ease its monetary policy again already in September. Outlook:
Today, the ECB Governing Council didn’t send any strong signal that another easing of monetary policy in September is already a done deal. A further easing of monetary conditions depends on upcoming information until the September meeting and the new ECB staff macroeconomic projections which will be presented at that meeting. The preferred instrument to ease monetary conditions further is the APP. We continue to expect the ECB to extend its QE program after the summer break.
ECB To Ease At Next Meeting; EUR/USD En-Route To 1.07 – Danske
The ECB kept all policy rates unchanged and maintained the monthly QE purchases of EUR80bn. The ECB “continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases”. The QE programme is still “intended to run until the end of March 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until [the bank]sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim”.
Overall, the comments from President Draghi were slightly more hawkish than expected. According to Draghi, the ECB’s assessment following the UK referendum on EU membership “is that euro area financial markets have weathered the spike in uncertainty and volatility with encouraging resilience”. Added to this, Draghi downplayed the importance of the very low 5y5y inflation expectations as he said it could be difficult to access the move in market based inflation expectations following the Brexit vote.
We expect the ECB to ease monetary policy at the next meeting as we foresee a weakening in economic data. Our call is that the QE programme will be boosted temporarily to EUR100bn for the rest of 2016 and that the programme will be extended until September 2017. We do not forecast any further rates cuts from the ECB.
EUR/USD barely reacted in line with expectations as Draghi signalled a wait-and-see attitude but left the door open for more easing.We maintain our call that EUR/USD will fall modestly near-term (3M forecast 1.07). Further ECB easing and US growth outperformance should drive EUR/USD lower in the autumn. Medium term, we maintain our long-held call for a higher EUR/USD towards 1.14 on 12M on valuation and current account differential.
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