The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the biggest global recession since the Second World War. Forecasts show the European Union underperforming economically relative to the United States and China during 2019–2023. Southern European countries have been particularly strongly affected. Some sectors...

Euro-area inflation has been below 1 percent since October 2013, and medium-term inflation expectations are well below 2 percent. Forecasts of the return to target inflation have proved wrong. The European Central Bank should act forcefully, but should undermine neither the major relative price...

After soaring in the 1970s, inflation in Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development countries stabilised, coming down from 9 percent on average in the early 1980s to about 2 percent in the years before the crisis, and to a lower level in recent years. This trend coincided with the...

The notes in this compilation by key monetary experts discuss the main financial stability threats of unconventional monetary policies in an environment of low interests rates and the interrelation between financial stability and monetary policy at the current juncture. The notes have been...

The notes in this compilation by key monetary experts discuss the main financial stability threats of unconventional monetary policies in an environment of low interests rates and the interrelation between financial stability and monetary policy at the current juncture. The notes have been...

The notes in this compilation analyse the potential side effects of the ECB expanded asset purchase programme (Quantitative Easing or QE) by focusing on the channels through which monetary policy may affect the distribution of income and wealth, e.g by favouring financial rather than labour...

The notes in this compilation analyse the potential side effects of the ECB expanded asset purchase programme (Quantitative Easing or QE) by focusing on the channels through which monetary policy may affect the distribution of income and wealth, e.g by favouring financial rather than labour...

The European financial system is plagued at present by two major sources of uncertainty. First, there is still mistrust over the quality of banks" balance sheets. Second, major uncertainty remains about the rules that will apply to bank recapitalisation, bank restructuring and bank resolution in...

Estimates of the recapitalisation needs of the euro-area banking system vary between €50 and €600 billion. The range shows the considerable uncertainty about the quality of banks' balance sheets and about the parameters of the forthcoming European Central Bank stress tests, including the...

Complementing Europe's bank-based system with deeper capital markets and more cross-border financial integration promises benefits, but despite long-running debate and policy action, financial system change remains slow. Fintech has the potential to change financial intermediation structures...