Category Archives: Euro-zone Update

Where you can find me these days

Posted on June 13, 2019 by fmpdea

As expected, I have moved to fresher pastures. I have been the Economics Editor at sister publications NordSIP and Ekonamik since the beginning of January 2019 and want to invite you to check out our content. Both publications are focused … Continue reading →

Posted in A € for your Thoughts, Aides Memoire, Banking, Blog Maintenance, Brazil, China, Current Events, ECB, Economic Concepts, Euro-zone Update, European Integration, European Interdependences, European National Politics, Finance, History, Indicators, Inflation, Media Coverage, News Round up & Comment, Political Concepts, Risk Scenario Analysis, Sovereign debt Crisis, UK, USA, Visions of the Political Future of Europe, Week Ahead, Weekly Bond Yield developments in the Euro Area, World Affairs | Leave a comment

ECB Report 2015Q2 – ECB Rates, Balance Sheet, QE & Tgt2 Balances Amid Greek Crisis

Posted on June 29, 2015 by fmpdea

For reasons discussed previously, this post presents and briefly discusses a number of variables pertaining to the activity of the ECB from its inception until now. Particular focus is put on the more recent events of the last quarter and … Continue reading →

Posted in ECB, Euro-zone Update, Uncategorized | Tagged ABSPP, Asset Backed Security Purchasing Programme, CBPP, Deposit Facility, ECB, ECB assets, ECB Balance Sheet, ECB liabilities, ECB QE, Marginal Lending Facility, MRO, PSPP, Public Sector Purchase Programme, QE in the Euro zone, QE in the Eurozone, SMP, Target2 | 1 Comment

A New Phase in Euro-Zone Crisis – Zero Coupon Perpetuities for Greece?

Posted on January 26, 2015 by fmpdea

I don’t have an enormous amount of time to consider the implications of the Greek election yesterday in a tremendous amount of detail. So the following are my thoughts, disorganised and potentially incoherent.

Posted in Current Events, Euro-zone Update, Sovereign debt Crisis | Tagged Debt Sustainability Analysis, DSA, ECB, ESM, Greece, Greek election 2015, Syriza, Tsirpas, Zero coupon Perpetuities | Leave a comment

A note on the Feasibility ECB Quantitative Easing

Posted on April 8, 2014 by fmpdea

Recent comments from the ECB about potential attempts to mitigate a decrease in inflation through QE have led to an increased interest in the articles posted on this website about the SMP and the CBPP. However, such interventions were pursued for different … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, ECB, Euro-zone Update, Inflation, Sovereign debt Crisis | Tagged CBPP, Draghi, ECB, Euro-zone, Euro-zone divergence, Inflation, LTRO, OMT, QE, Quantitative Easing, SMP, Sterilisation of ECB OMOs, Target2 | 2 Comments

Why I think the ECB is not about to cut the MRO rate

Posted on May 1, 2013 by fmpdea

On Thursday May 2nd, the Governing Council of the ECB will hold is monthly meeting to determine the path of monetary policy. The market consensus seems to be that the ECB will cut the refi rate (MRO rate). I disagree. … Continue reading →

Posted in Banking, Current Events, ECB, Euro-zone Update, Finance, Media Coverage | Tagged Asmussen, Bank Lending Survey, Channel of Monetary Policy Transmission, Coeure, Constancio, Current Account at ECB, Deposit Facility, Draghi, ECB, ECB Balance Sheet, EONIA, GDP, Inflation, LTRO, M3, Marginal Lending Facility, Mersch, MRO, MRO rate cut, PMIs, Praet, refi rate cut, Target2, TARGET2 imbalances, Weidmann | 5 Comments

What Happened in 2012?

Posted on January 29, 2013 by fmpdea

This post takes a long overdue look at the monetary, financial, economic and political developments that took place during 2012 and the trends at the end of the year. It’s an exercise in taking stock and follows a relatively simple … Continue reading →

Posted in Aides Memoire, Banking, Current Events, ECB, Euro-zone Update, European Integration, European Interdependences, European National Politics, Finance, Indicators, Inflation, Sovereign debt Crisis, Uncategorized, USA, World Affairs | Tagged 2012, Balance of Payments 2012, Bank Lending Survey, Banking Union, BoE, BoJ, Bond markets, Bonds, Central banks balance sheet, Consumption 2012, Corporate Bond Bubble, Current Account Balance 2012, Deflation in Japan 2012, ECB, EU in 2012, Euro-zone in 2012, Europe in 2012, External balance of trade goods, External balance of trade services, External Trade Balance, Fed, Financial Account Balance 2012, Government debt, Government Expenditure, Holders of government bonds, Holders of government debt, Inflation 2012, Investment 2012, Japan in 2012, Lending to SMEs survey, Long Term Refinancing Operations, LTROs, Monetary base, Monetary supply, OMT, Outright Monetary Transactions, politics of Germany, politics of Greece, politics of Italy, politics of Portugal, politics of Spain, politics of UK, QE, Quantitative Easing, Sovereign Credit Ratings, UK in 2012, USA in 2012, Voter intention polls, What Happened in 2012, Where is the money going to?, Yearly Review | 1 Comment

The Latest Greek Deal – Another Indictment of Intergovernmentalism

Posted on November 29, 2012 by fmpdea

This will be a short one about the latest example of the uselessness of intergovernmentalism… So after two failed attempts at finding common ground on Greece on November 13th and on November 20th, the Eurogroup finally came to a provisional … Continue reading →

Posted in Euro-zone Update, European Integration, News Round up & Comment, Uncategorized | Tagged ECB Greek SMP Purchases Profit Transfer, Greece, Greek bailout, Greek bailout negotiations November 2012, Greek debt relief, Greek Debt Repurchases, Intergovernmentalism | Leave a comment

ECB Market Intervention: Outright Monetary Transactions (“OMT”) – A Preliminary Assessment

Posted on September 9, 2012 by fmpdea

Last Thursday, September 6th, the ECB introduced its new goverment bond purchasing programme, known as the Outright Monetary Transactions (“OMT”). If you are interested in getting the information from the lion’s mouth, you can watch the press conference here,read its transcript here and get the … Continue reading →

Posted in ECB, Euro-zone Update, Sovereign debt Crisis | Tagged Draghi, OMT, Outright Monetary Transactions, SMP | 2 Comments

Divergence in the Euro-Zone: Famous, Obscure and Predictable Facts

Posted on June 26, 2012 by fmpdea

In a previous post about the theory of optimum currency areas (OCA), asymmetric shocks, structural problems and the intrinsic need that this creates for the institution of a fiscal union, I argued that incomplete by monetary unions (i.e.: lacking a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Concepts, Euro-zone Update, European Interdependences, Uncategorized | Tagged Divergence, Euro-zone divergence, France, GDP, Germany, Government Bond Yields, Greece, Inflation, Ireland, Portugal, Potential GDP, real Exchange Rate, Spain, ULB, Unemployment, Unit Labour Costs | Leave a comment

Euro Update(31): Rating cuts, trade surplus, new orders, SGP and ECB

Posted on January 15, 2012 by fmpdea

Rating Cuts So as you must know by now, S&P lowered the sovereign debt rating of 10 Euro-zone countries on January 13. This included France, Austria, Italy and Spain. It will be interesting to see what this will mean for … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, ECB, Euro-zone Update, Sovereign debt Crisis | Tagged Credit Ratings, ECB, France, Germany, New Orders, Portugal, Sovereign Debt Crisis, Spain, Trade | 1 Comment