ECB President Mario Draghi explains that monetary policy is unchanged and that assessments haven’t changed. If someone was thinking about tapering in previous meetings, this is clearly off the cards. At this point, this is no surprise. Update: the ECB decided to lift the ELA on Greece. This sends the euro down.
EUR/USD is rising back towards 1.09. The high so far is 1.0893 from the low of 1.0863.
- Draghi began with talking about danger to growth from the emerging market slowdown
- QEÂ continues at full speed
- ECB lifts ELA by 900 million euros.
- Draghi: Total exposure to Greece now 130 bn
- The decision to raise ELA symmetrical to the one that decided to cap it.
- Uncontroversial debt relief is necessary
- EUR/USD extends its losses. Support awaits at 1.0820.
- Capital controls are responsibility of Greek government
- Our mandate is to act based on the assumption that Greece is and will be a member of the euro area
- All evidence indicates Greece will repay ECB loan on July 20
- No decision on collateral haircut today.
- Not up to us to doubt implementation.
- Greek ELA decision was probably not unanimous
- Room for QE to be applied for Greece after July 20th
- Eligibility depends on debt rating.
- EUR/USD recovering to 1.0880.
- There was some front loading of QE, of 3 billion in May and 3 in June. This doesn’t sound huge in the bigger scheme of things.
The ECB left the rates unchanged, exactly as expected. No change was expected in the QE policy, which is going on smoothly without any changes in the pace. The focus is clearly on Greece.
The euro has been weakening earlier in the day, still unconvinced from the advance of the Greek deal and also moving on Yellen’s comments.
There’s lots more going on in Greece.
