ECB Monthly Bulletin Editorial for November (Text)

The following is the text of the European Central Bank’s November monthly bulletin:

Based on the regular economic and monetary analyses, and in line with its forward guidance, the Governing Council decided at its meeting on 6 November 2014 to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. Following up on the decisions of 2 October 2014, the Eurosystem last month started purchasing covered bonds under the new programme. The Eurosystem will also soon start to purchase asset-backed securities. The programmes will last for at least two years. Together with the series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations to be conducted until June 2016, these asset purchases will have a sizeable impact on the Eurosystem’s balance sheet, which is expected to move towards the dimensions it had at the beginning of 2012.