Pressure on ECB to print money

THE European Central Bank (ECB) could soon bow to pressure to print money to prevent a further escalation of the eurozone’s debt crisis, according to a Reuters poll.

The poll of 50 bond strategists across Europe and the US, gave a 48% probability that the ECB will be forced to conduct outright quantitative easing (QE).

That would be a highly controversial break from its existing policy, where it offsets government bond purchases in its Securities Markets Programme by draining liquidity from the system in separate operations.