(Bloomberg) -- Interest rates and longer-term refinancing operations should take priority in times of increased economic volatility, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said, warning of the dangers of large scale bond-buying programs and forward guidance.
“Central banks need to prioritize agility and flexibility when choosing their instruments in the pursuit of their mandate,” Schnabel said on Thursday. “Short-term interest rates therefore remain the instrument of choice in most circumstances.”
Speaking at the International Monetary Fund’s annual research conference in Washington, she said that quantitative easing should “be used more cautiously in the future” and also highlighted the disadvantages of giving a detailed outlook on the rate path.
Schnabel’s comments come amid a fresh review of the ECB’s monetary-policy strategy, with results due in the second half of 2025. While the exercise will be less wide-ranging than the one that ended in 2021, it could still have significant implications for future rate action and the ECB’s response to crises.
One particular focus will be on policy instruments and especially the costs and benefits of asset purchases. Though most officials see QE as an efficient tool in times of crisis, some also point to significant negative side effects — such as distortions in financial markets and sizable central-bank losses.
“Asset purchases have proven to be a powerful tool for market stabilization, while their cost-benefit ratio is less favorable when it comes to stimulating the economy near the effective lower bound,” Schnabel said. “Other tools, such as TLTROs, have been effective in reviving bank lending and can be reversed more quickly.”
The ECB began QE in 2015 in a bid to revive inflation that had become too slow. It later launched a separate program during the Covid-19 pandemic. Holdings peaked at about €5 trillion ($5.6 trillion), mostly consisting of government debt. In 2023 it started unwinding the holdings as part of its response to a spike in inflation.
Schnabel also is circumspect of forward guidance, which critics have blamed for the delay in ECB rate hiking in 2022.
“Our recent experience has also taught us that central bankers should be careful not to tie their hands too much by providing explicit forward guidance,” she said. “In a volatile macroeconomic environment, they should remain agile and retain the ability to change course quickly when circumstances change.”
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