FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s chief economist Philip Lane played down the prospect of the ECB buying stocks or bank bonds as part of its pandemic-fighting efforts, saying in a newspaper interview published on Sunday these were not in its toolbox.
“The ECB and the Eurosystem have many excellent monetary economists, so everything is considered at some level,” Lane told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“But these measures are not part of our current toolbox. Our active toolbox is a combination of our short term rates, asset purchases, targeted lending and our forward guidance.”
(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by Barbara Lewis)
