Last week, hardline members of the European Central Bank's governing Governing Council came out one after the other to warn that the Eurozone's monetary policy will need to be tightened in the coming months.
However, they are very likely to be outvoted by the doves in this week's Council meeting, and the current strategy will be maintained, with no pre-announcement of a decrease in asset purchases anticipated before the end of the year.
n Despite recent proposals from hardline Council members, it is very likely that the European Central Bank's Governing Council will vote against pre-announced tightening of Eurozone financial conditions in the next week. Given the likelihood that many EUR/USD traders have initiated long positions in the pair as a consequence of the hawks' rhetoric, the main risk is that the pair will retrace its losses once the Council announces its policy decision on Thursday. ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, and fellow ECB Council members Robert Holzmann and Klaas Knot were among the numerous hawks who appeared on the newswires. It is a cause of worry for them all that the Eurozone economy is rebounding but inflation has increased sharply to 3%, considerably more than the European Central Bank's goal.
Despite this, the doves, headed by President Christine Lagarde, are virtually likely to retain their majority in the Council, arguing that the inflation overshoot would be transitory and that there should be no signal of future policy tightening for the time being. She might also note in passing that statistics published last week showed an unexpectedly significant fall in the final August reading of the Eurozone services PMI, as well as an unexpected drop in German retail sales year on year in July. This would obviously be negative for the EUR/USD, particularly considering that the pair has been on a rampage since reaching a low of 1.1664 on August 20. Following the ECB's decision on Thursday, Lagarde will hold a news conference to clarify her views, but there is something else that traders should look out for: the ECB's economic forecasts. A news conference will immediately follow Lagarde's. El Confidencial, a Spanish newspaper, ran a story on De Guindos. The European Commission said this week that the “economy is doing better than we expected in 2021, and this will be reflected in the forecasts that will be published in the coming days.” If the growth and inflation forecasts are correct, this may offer some support to EUR/USD bulls while also reducing the negative possibilities.
Looking forward, the ECB may propose asset purchase cutbacks by the end of this year, which may involve a transfer from its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program to its Asset Purchase Program, as well as a general slowing in asset purchases. The European Central Bank's quantitative easing program is anticipated to be phased down gradually, with the first interest rate hike happening as early as 2024.