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ECB Forward Guidance Is No Longer Working as It Used to

If ECB had fully bought-in to transitory inflation narrative, it would respond to a hit to income by loosening monetary policy.

ECB Forward Guidance Is No Longer Working as It Used to
The European Central Bank headquarters beside the River Main in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg)
ECB Forward Guidance Is No Longer Working as It Used to

Bloomberg Economics’ model shows that if the European Central Bank had fully bought-in to the transitory inflation narrative, it would respond to a hit to income by loosening monetary policy, guiding markets to a later lift off for interest rates and lowering risk-free lending rates at longer maturities. Instead, what we see is that markets have brought forward expectations for rate hikes and the whole yield curve has shifted upward -- a climb that in part probably reflects the reduction of virus-related tail risks as the year progressed and the global economy improved. But the shift may also flag a deeper challenge that central banks face: forward guidance may no longer be working as it used to.

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