At a press conference following the regular Governing Council meeting, ECB President Mario Draghi announced the ECB´s bond buying program. This program is meant to set the financial market in motion, a continued ECB´s effort linked to tackling the low inflation and low economic growth. By the end of this year, Draghi announced, the ECB will buy some €1 trillion worth of covered bonds and asset-backed securities. Also, if Greece and Cyprus continue their program, ECB will buy junk-rating bonds issued by their banks. This bond-buying program agreed earlier will bring the ECB portfolio up to the 2012 level of €3 trillion. The year 2012 was the gravest part of the eurozone crisis. Many agree that such program is needed to tackle the risk of deflation, although some say it is not enough and that the ECB will need to take the only step left – the FED-like quantitative easing. However, mainly German officials oppose the too much eased ECB monetary policy. For now, Mario Draghi calls on eurozone governments to continue structural reforms and respect tight fiscal rules. Also he, however, mentions stimulating demand in the eurozone. It was also announced, that the main ECB interest rate will be kept at its record low of only 0.05%.

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