Lagarde: The stimulus may take some time to appear

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said today that the European Central Bank may take some time before the recently agreed acceleration in the pace of money printing becomes clear as part of its efforts to mitigate the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Central Bank last week agreed to significantly increase its bond purchases to keep yields low, but Lagarde said it will take some time before this step appears in the weekly bond purchase numbers. "If the increases are significant and continuous in market interest rates, when left unchecked, they may become inconsistent with facing the downward impact of the epidemic on the expected path of inflation," Lagarde added.