On Thursday 26 October, the governors of the European Central bank (ECB) decided to extend the programme for the mass buyback of mainly public securities (quantitative easing or QE) until the end of September 2018 at the earliest, in a scaled-back form.
On account of economic recovery which is strengthening, albeit not enough to trigger a swift return of inflation to a level close to below 2%, the Central Bank has made four main decisions, announced in the following order by its president,...