ECB is doing what it could have done during the banking crisis

Since the pandemic began, the European Central Bank has bought 80 per cent of all public debt issued in the eurozone. But if the ECB really wants to generate growth, it needs to kickstart wage inflation

Aidan Regan

@aidan_regan

20th December, 2020

ECB is doing what it could have done during the banking crisis

The European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt: since 2010, the ECB has not only loosened monetary policy, it has opened the floodgates. Photo: Getty

If I were to pick an institution of the year, it would be the European Central Bank. In 2020, it provided the funding conditions that allowed all eurozone member states to finance their fiscal response to the Covid-19 crisis. It did this by actively pushing down the cost of borrowing for all governments. If the ECB had not done this, there is no way that the Irish government would be able to afford to pay...

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