Optimism is tinged with caution - ECB quantitative easing

YESTERDAY’S long-anticipated announcement by the European Central Bank that it would begin a quantitative easing (QE) programme to allow it print money to facilitate the purchase of up to €60bn worth of sovereign bonds from March until the end of September next year may be the panacea that struggling European economies need so very badly.

But then it may not be and that fact, that even such tremendous sums cannot guarantee a positive outcome, shows how precarious Europe’s economic situation really is.

The ECB move comes three months after the US Federal Reserve ended its QE programme and is seen as a decisive moment in the strained European integration project. As if to underline the urgency around reversing dishearteningly dangerous figures, Spain’s rate of unemployment unexpectedly hit a nerve-racking and unsustainable 23.7% yesterday, more than double our falling, but still challenging, 10.6% figure.