The European Central Bank is to start preparing markets for the end of years of massive bond purchases by shifting its message to investors soon to reflect the strength of the eurozone economy.
Minutes of the ECB’s most recent rate-setting meeting, published on Thursday, showed that policymakers want to tone down references to the region’s recovery and instead shift the bank’s communications to focus on a “continued robust and increasingly self sustaining economic expansion.”
Investors took the minutes of the December 14 meeting as a sign that the ECB’s massive monetary stimulus known as quantitative easing could end sooner than expected.