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ECB’s Pandemic Program Means Most Powerful Tool Stays in Reserve

  • PEPP now has few restrictions, but OMT is almost unlimited
  • ECB officials are broadly in favor if conditions are in place
ECB

Photographer: Daniel Roland/AFP via Getty Images

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European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is doing everything she can before she has to test her predecessor’s landmark tool to save the euro.

The decision to give her own crisis measure, the week-old Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program, almost free range to buy government debt has reduced the likelihood that she’ll have to resort to Mario Draghi’s Outright Monetary Transactions