ECB to consider all options to support economy against coronavirus - Visco
MILAN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is ready to consider all options available within its mandate to support the economy in the current coronavirus crisis, Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said on Tuesday.
In a speech prepared for the presentation of the Italian central bank's 2019 financial statements, Visco listed all the measures adopted by the ECB, which is so far the only European institution that has taken major steps to prop up the economy.
The ECB has raised its goal for planned purchases of assets to around 1.1 trillion euros (982.30 billion pounds) this year to fight the pandemic.
"We're willing to raise the volume of purchases, change their composition and explore all possible options to support the economy in this phase of acute difficulty," Visco, who is also the Bank of Italy governor, said.
The ECB has decided to eliminate a cap on how many bonds it can buy from any single euro zone country. Visco said revising existing limits had become necessary to make sure measures were proportionate to the risks that needed to be tackled.
"There won't be any tolerance for impediments hindering the effective transmission of monetary policy," he said.
(Reporting by Valentina Za and Stefano Bernabei, editing by Agnieszka Flak)
