Roundup: Italian media highlight positive impact of ECB measures on families, consumers

The new package of stimulus measures delivered by European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi is likely to impact positively on families, consumers, and firms, Italian media highlighted on Friday.

"The new ECB measures are bound to produce a series of beneficial effects on citizens and companies in general," Ansa news agency wrote, citing banking sector analysts.

On Thursday, Draghi announced further steps in ECB's monetary policy in order to strengthen the euro-zone economy. Measures include cutting the ECB benchmark interest rate to 0 percent from 0.05 percent, the marginal lending facility rate to 0.25 percent from 0.3 percent, and the deposit rate to negative 0.4 percent from negative 0.3 percent.

The provisions will come into effect on March 16.

The ECB will also expand its bond-buying program, the so-called Quantitative Easing (QE), from 60 billion euros (66.6 billion U.S. dollars) to 80 billion euros per month from April, and will include non-bank corporate bonds in the range of assets eligible for purchase.

Finally, the ECB is to launch a new series of four Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO II), from June 2016 to March 2017.

According to Ansa, these measures would help "re-launch of business loans, more affordable mortgages, an increase in household and business's propensity to consume, and an overall positive impact on spending and investments."

Italy's main business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said: "The ECB might find itself in the condition of paying the banks so that they will lend (further) to the real economy."

It added the ECB package would make borrowing cheaper for all of the major actors playing a role in Italy's economy such as families, SMEs and big firms, banks, and the treasury.

The new QE program's effectiveness should be assessed by weighing the ECB package of measures on the whole. Such measures would be complementary, and all together aimed at decreasing the cost of money in all its forms.

"The ECB's goal is ambitious: to boost the economy and the inflation with it, thus restoring price stability. While waiting for European governments to push through structural reforms and, when possible, expansionary fiscal policies, the ECB does not flinch from playing its part," the daily said.

Turin-based La Stampa newspaper focused on some effects the new ECB package was expected to have on Italian families' daily life.

"The first thought goes to mortgages. The cut of ECB benchmark rate to zero will bring about a decrease in housing loans' installments, even if only by few euros per month," La Stampa wrote.

Draghi's measures would also benefit the Italian real estate market altogether, according to the newspaper. "The decrease in real estate prices, which has continued during 2015, has made property investment more lucrative already," it said.

"Lower rates on mortgages should now further boost the demand, especially if combined with a greater willingness of banks to provide credit," it added. Endit