Bloomberg reports that European Central Bank Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said that the ECB should keep some of the flexibility embedded in its pandemic bond-buying program for post-crisis stimulus measures.
“I think flexibility should remain,” Visco said. “It will help against unexpected shocks, and it will help to avoid fragmentation that may rise again.”
Visco’s comments add to an intensifying debate on the design of the ECB’s post-crisis policies. Many policy makers including Visco have dismissed the recent spike as largely transitory, but some have started to warn that inflation could become more entrenched if it stokes higher wages. That’s leading to a rift within the Governing Council on how supportive the central bank’s post-Covid policies should be.