Draghi Ends ECB Bond-Buying Era Saying Economy Can Beat Risk

Mario Draghi said the euro-area economy is strong enough to overcome increased risk, justifying the European Central Bank’s decision to halt bond purchases and close an extraordinary chapter in the decade-long struggle with financial crises and recession.

The euro fell after the central bank also pledged to keep interest rates unchanged at current record lows at least through the summer of 2019, a longer timeframe than investors had priced in. Policy makers will phase out bond purchases by the end of this year in what Draghi described as a unanimous decision.

By pushing ahead with a stimulus exit, officials are betting that the euro-area economy is robust enough to ride out an apparent slowdown amid risks including U.S. trade tariffs and nervousness that Italy’s populist government will spark another financial crisis.

“We’ve taken these decisions knowing that the economy is in a better situation, with an increase in uncertainty,” Draghi said at a briefing in Riga, where the Frankfurt-based ECB held its annual out-of-town meeting. While the recent economic “soft patch” may last longer, that doesn’t change the view of underlying momentum, he said.

The announcement came only hours after the Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates for the second time this year, highlighting how a decade of easy money in Europe and America is gradually coming to an end. Still, the People’s Bank of China opted not to follow the Fed in tightened borrowing costs, and the Bank of Japan is expected to maintain its stimulus when it meets on Friday.Draghi kept his options open. He said rates will stay at record lows for “as long as necessary” to keep inflation on a sustained path toward the goal of just under 2 percent over the medium term. The Governing Council didn’t discuss changing borrowing costs and ending asset purchases will be subject to incoming data.

“The rates will be changed depending on what is the state of the convergence process” of inflation, Draghi said. “I hope that in the next year, we will be giving an assessment of convergence that is positive and confident.”