, Columnist
The ECB's Financial Stability Report Is Scary Reading
As Christine Lagarde knows, this is not the time to submit to monetary hawks.
A time for doves.
Photographer: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
Christine Lagarde has a critical meeting of the European Central Bank’s governing council coming up on June 10. As usual this will encompass a quarterly review of inflation and growth forecasts, an exercise that lets the ECB take stock of the impact of its monetary policy measures. But this time the gathering will also be a serious test of ECB President Lagarde’s ability to quell the hawkish rumblings on the council.
Several governing council members are wondering — unwisely — whether to taper the central bank’s 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.3 billion) pandemic bond-buying program as Europe’s economies begin a staggered reopening.