ECB press conference: keeping the faith

The ECB press conference brought little new. While the Governing Council acknowledges a weakening in the most recent data, it still remains “confident” that inflation pressures will “gradually rise” . The GC consequently saw no need to change its risk assessment, which is still seen as “broadly balanced” . The Governing Council did not discuss guidelines for its reinvestment policy after the end of APP. There was also no discussion how the recalibrated ECB capital key may affect reinvestments. All this will be decided at the December meeting. Several questions centered on the stand-off between the Italian government and the European Commission. While stressing the importance of sticking to European rules, Mr Draghi described the situation as a “fiscal issue” , also highlighting that the ECB will not react to country specific developments.