ECB publishes its account of the March monetary policy meeting
- March meeting statement
- Growth returning to potential through projection horizon might be optimistic
- Risk of inflation expectations de-anchoring seen as low
- Economy is in extended soft patch, length is still unclear
- Uncertainty has elevated, citing trade tensions
- Growth slowdown could weigh on the pass-through from wages to prices
- Some members argued for guidance to stipulate steady rates through Q1 2020 instead
Well, so far Q1 economic data has been less than stellar so that justifies their reasoning here. Let's see if this will extend towards 2H 2019; you kind of get that de ja vu feeling from last year. Anyway, what's interesting to note is that there are those that seem to believe that rates should be held steady for a longer period and I reckon that's where the ECB will go next should economic conditions worsen from here.
Other than that, there isn't much else in the minutes here that we don't already know.