ECB's Lagarde On The Spot Over Economic Risks And Strategy Rethink

European Central Bank chiefs left easy-money policy settings in place Thursday, leaving president Christine Lagarde to detail a rethink of its aims and methods and update her assessment of risks facing the eurozone

Frankfurt am Main, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2020 ):European Central Bank chiefs left easy-money policy settings in place Thursday, leaving president Christine Lagarde to detail a rethink of its aims and methods and update her assessment of risks facing the eurozone.

At their meeting in Frankfurt, governors left interest rates at historic lows and maintained "quantitative easing" (QE) bond-buying purchases, a spokesman said.

What's more "the governing council also decided to launch a review of the ECB's monetary policy strategy," he added, promising more details later Thursday.

At her first press conference as ECB chief last month, Lagarde vowed to "turn each and every stone" in the planned probe.

Slated to finish this year, the rethink is slated to look above all at the ECB's just-below-two-percent inflation goal and the tools the bank should use to achieve it.

The institution's last stock-taking in 2003 took place several years before it intervened massively in inter-bank markets amid the global financial and economic crisis.

At Lagarde's 2:30 pm (1330 GMT) press conference, observers will be on the lookout for information on the review and any small changes in language regarding economic risks, after several weeks of mostly positive political tailwinds for the economy.

This year marks a new phase for her presidency, after its early months were spent smoothing divisions among policymakers that erupted under predecessor Mario Draghi.