2019.07.1108:29:00UTC+00ECB Minutes: Policymakers Felt Need To Be Ready To Ease Policy Further

Policymakers at the European Central Bank agreed that they needed to ready to ease the policy stance further, as uncertainties were likely to continue in the coming months, the minutes of the June rate-setting session showed on Thursday.

"There was broad agreement that, in the light of the heightened uncertainty, which was likely to extend further into the future, the Governing Council needed to be ready and prepared to ease the monetary policy stance further by adjusting all of its instruments, as appropriate, to achieve its price stability objective," the minutes, which the ECB calls "account", showed on Thursday. "Potential measures to be considered included the possibility of further extending and strengthening the Governing Council's forward guidance, resuming net asset purchases and decreasing policy rates."

Rate-setters also considered the need for "more strategic" measures if inflation continued to remain low and that the bank's communication should stress that deviations of inflation from the bank's target in both directions would be tolerated. "At the same time, the point was made that care needed to be taken to ensure that any considerations of a strategic nature could not be seen as moving the goalposts at a time when it proved challenging to achieve the Governing Council's inflation aim," the minutes said.