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Lagarde, end of sacrilege

2023-03-17T10:46:15.992Z


The ECB has left the path of increases in the air if the banking turmoil persists or worsens, the real gesture that the markets needed


The European Central Bank has decided to go ahead with the half-point rise in interest rates despite the banking turbulence that began in the United States due to the fall of Silicon Valley Bank and aggravated in Europe with the collapse of Credit Suisse.

The decision should not be interpreted as a blow to the

hawks

' table .

Suspending a measure decided since February could have been read as certification of the crisis and a manifest mistrust in support for the Swiss bank made public just a few hours earlier.

The choice to contain the rise to the quart, compared to the 0.5 that the script dictated, would also have caused misgivings and, on the other hand, was not going to make a real difference.

What mattered most this Thursday in Frankfurt was the message, both the one written in the official statement and the one that Christine Lagarde would transmit in the melee with the journalists.

And there were reasons to fear performance.

The French woman has suffered serious setbacks, especially at the start of her term.

In March 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, she set the markets on fire by saying that the ECB's role was not to “reduce risk premiums”, that is, to help member countries of the monetary union in trouble.

Lagarde wanted to put pressure on governments to take the measures that corresponded to them, but, at critical moments, a central banker must be forceful with firewalls and leave moralizing for another time.

She had to correct herself that same day in an impromptu interview to ensure: "I am absolutely committed to avoiding any fragmentation of the euro zone at a difficult time."

This time Lagarde – and the ECB – have passed the test, a difficult test.

In a scenario that is highly pressured by rising inflation, Frankfurt has left the path of increases in the air if the banking turmoil persists or worsens, the real gesture that the markets needed, beyond a quarter of a point up or down.

Because what matters is the day after and that does require bankers to take it easy.

Especially when the bank shocks of these days — and the consequent mistrust — are already going to result in a tightening of credit conditions and, in some way, they are going to do part of the thankless job of cooling the economy to combat inflation.

In addition, the ECB has promised to inject as much liquidity as necessary to face a financial crisis through "all the necessary monetary policy instruments".

LTRO (Long-Term Refinancing Operations) liquidity programs are ready to be activated at any time and he has suggested that they could also turn to TPI (Transmission Protection Instrument), a tool that allows Frankfurt to buy a country's debt if the financing cost differential shoots up (yes: to contain the risk premium, that sacrilege).

He has not given figures either: that would have put a price on the crisis.

That is also the premise that can work for the Federal Reserve, which meets next week.

A rise in the price of money of 0.5 points was expected, but analysts believe that it can be left at 0.25 or postponed.

This time the ECB, as a welcome novelty, is the one who has set the pace for the Fed.

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Source: elparis

All business articles on 2023-03-17

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