ECB initiates quantitative easing program to stimulate economy

The bond buying program of the European Central Bank (ECB) started on Monday with the aim of fending off deflation and boost the euro area economy by pumping more money into the real economy.

Central banks of the 19-country currency union will buy public and private bonds in the secondary market with a total scale of 1.1 trillion euros (1.2 trillion U.S. dollars).

The ECB made the decision to launch the bond purchasing program, also called Quantitative Easing (QE), in January.

ECB President Mario Draghi announced in Cyprus' capital city of Nicosia Thursday that it would start buying bonds on Monday and the combined monthly purchases of public and private sector securities will amount to 60 billion euros (68 billion U.S. dollars).

The program will last until at least September 2016 and will be extended if necessary. The ECB aims to bring the euro zone inflation up to its target rate, which is below but close to 2 percent, in the medium term.

The euro area annual inflation was minus 0.3 percent in February and minus 0.6 percent in January. The ECB in March foresees the inflation to be zero in 2015, 1.5 percent in 2016 and 1.8 percent in 2017.

"The start has been very promising," said Christian Schulz, a senior economist at Berenberg Bank.

The mere announcement of the QE has already brought borrowing costs for governments and companies down a lot, while inflation expectations and confidence indicators are both up, he told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

If the QE program is successful, the positive outcomes will outweigh possible negative side effects, Schulz argued.

Schulz also said that now that the ECB has started buying bonds, people have to wait and see whether it will have additional effects, adding that there is no major reason for the time being that the ECB would fall short of its target. Endi