ECB Meeting Accounts: Members agree ample monetary stimulus remains essential

The European Central Bank's (ECB) policymakers agreed that ample monetary stimulus remains essential, the ECB's January Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts showed on Thursday.

Market reaction

The shared currency showed no immediate reaction to this statement and the EUR/USD pair was last seen gaining 0.28% on a daily basis at 1.2070.

Key takeaways as summarized by Reuters

"In view of the sharp contraction of the euro area economy, it was deemed important for the governing council to emphasise the need for continued and ambitious fiscal policies to support the recovery."

"Governing council needed to state that it continued to stand ready to adjust all of its instruments, including the deposit facility rate, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation moved toward its aim in a sustained manner."

"Governing council should reiterate its vigilance with regard to developments in the exchange rate and their implications for the inflation outlook."

"Point was made that the governing council needed to stress that there was no room for complacency."

"The view was held that favourable financing conditions needed to prevail for some time."

"A balanced presentation of the outlook was called for, as some uncertainties regarding the international developments had been resolved in a more positive way than expected."

"Projected path of inflation continued to be distant from the governing council’s medium-term inflation aim."

"Not every increase in nominal yields should be interpreted as an unwarranted tightening."

"Nominal yields were not an appropriate benchmark for assessing whether financing conditions remained favourable."

"Members also widely agreed that there was no room for complacency."

"A more sustained rise in real rates could rapidly lower the relative attractiveness of equities and thereby pose the risk of a more broad-based repricing."

"To the extent that investors saw the risks surrounding us real rates as increasingly skewed to the upside, an important driver behind recent exchange rate developments could lose steam."