The European Central Bank will wait until late this year before considering reining in its bond-buying plan, and won’t halt the program until well into 2018 at the earliest, economists say.
Even as euro-area inflation gathers pace, three-quarters of respondents in a Bloomberg survey said the ECB’s next major change to its stimulus will be announced no sooner than September. With underlying price pressures subdued, two-thirds of analysts said that decision will be to slow monthly purchases but extend them beyond December. None foresees any new measures when the Governing Council meets in Frankfurt on Thursday.