ECB June meeting: worried about external threats

The ECB left policy rates unchanged at today’s meeting but adjusted its forward guidance on rates by promising to keep rates unchanged “through the first half of 2020” (previously “through the end of 2019” ) . This change reflects rising concerns about external risks and the Governing Council also discussed further measures to ease policy should this be needed . T hese discussions , however, seem to be at an early stage. The ECB also announced the details for its new TLTRO III operations. The spread applied to these funding operations will be in the end bank specific, depending on lending dynamics.