Since the financial crisis the European Central Bank (ecb) has ploughed a solitary course, reflecting its unique status as a monetary authority without a state. While other big central banks, notably America's Federal Reserve, adopted quantitative eas-ing-buying government bonds by creating money-to stimulate recovery, the ecb relied mainly on lowering interest rates and providing unlimited liquidity to banks on longer terms and against worse collateral. But as the Fed phases out its asset-buying programme in 2014, it may be the ecb's turn to become unorthodox.
展开▼
