Frankfurt - The ECB's chief economist warned central bankers from around the eurozone of the perils of delaying quantitative easing, according to records of a January meeting that shed light on how policy makers 'broadly' agreed to launch the scheme.
Speaking to the January 22 gathering of the ECB's Governing Council, which sets policy, Peter Praet addressed the risks of waiting before launching a programme of quantitative easing, or QE - effectively printing money to buy government bonds.
The minutes of the meeting give a bare-bones account of the discussion, but they do provide a glimpse of the pressure and tension involved in ECB decision making, which seeks to forge consensus among 19 different countries from Germany to Greece.