The European Central Bank unleashed another half-trillion euro ($600 billion) wave of stimulus as a winter surge in COVID-19 infections shuts down large parts of the economy and wipes out pre-Christmas sales revenue ahead of the region’s most important holiday.
The 25-member governing council decided Thursday to increase its bond purchase stimulus by 500 billion euros, to 1.85 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion). It will extend the duration of the program until at least March 2022 instead of the current earliest end date of mid-2021. It also expanded its offerings of ultra-cheap loans to banks.
