In an opening statement approved by other members of the central bank’s governing council, Mr. Draghi said
that economic risks were “broadly balanced.” That was a more optimistic assessment than Mr. Draghi gave at his last news conference in April, when he said that risks to growth were “still tilted to the downside.”
In the meantime, unemployment has continued to fall, while growth has been better than expected.
The European Central Bank has said it will not touch its benchmark interest rates until it has ended
the bond buying program and, in any case, will keep rates low for “an extended period of time.”
Still, analysts have already begun speculating about when the first rate increases might occur.
But Mr. Draghi blunted the impact of the change when he said during the news conference that,
of course, the central bank can reduce rates at any time and is prepared to do so if needed.
There was some excitement before the news conference when the central bank, in a routine statement announcing
that benchmark interest rates remained unchanged, dropped a phrase emphasizing that it could reduce rates further if needed.
Here are some of the important points from the news conference:
The European Central Bank has promised to continue buying bonds at least through the end of the year “or beyond, if necessary.”
It is the beyond part that analysts are trying to figure out.
Mario Draghi, the central bank’s president, sought to address the intense interest among investors
and economists in how quickly the central bank will reduce its purchases of government and corporate bonds, a form of money printing known as quantitative easing.
