Investing.com --Outgoing European Central Bank President Mario Draghi bowed out on a defiant note Thursday, rejecting criticism of his negative interest rate policy and his insistence on resuming outright purchases of government bonds from next month.
“The improvements in the economy have more than offset the negative side effects” on the financial system, Draghi said at his regular press conference.
He added that he wasn’t unduly concerned about the dissent against September’s multi-faceted package of easing measures, saying that all the key economic data from the euro zone in the course of the last month had justified the actions.
“I’ve taken this as part and parcel of the ongoing debate and discussions,” Draghi said.
The decision to restart quantitative easing had been publicly attacked by the central bank governors of Germany, France and the Netherlands after last month’s meeting. Those countries account for over half of the euro zone economy. The move was also attacked in a public letter from several former senior central bank officials, who accused the bank of breaching the EU treaty in financing the ongoing deficits of eurozone governments.
The ECB earlier announced it had left all its key interest rates unchanged at its regular governing council meeting, as universally expected.
EUR/USD was effectively unchanged against the dollar by 8:50 AM ET (1250 GMT).