In a welcome news with a kick start at the beginning of the month, Ursula Von der Leyen, AstraZeneca will start deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccines one week earlier than expected. The Chief of the EU also added that the Anglo-Swedish pharma company will deliver nine million more doses of its vaccine to the Union in the first quarter of this year, by making a total of 40 million for the period. The company would expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe as It is crucial to prepare for the appearance of such variants.
Elsewhere, The European Central Bank’s chief economist Philip Lane played down the prospect of the ECB buying stocks or bank bonds as part of its pandemic-fighting efforts, saying in a newspaper interview published on Sunday these were not in its toolbox.
Lane told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said “The ECB and the Eurosystem have many excellent monetary economists, so everything is considered at some level.” “But these measures are not part of our current toolbox. Our active toolbox is a combination of our short term rates, asset purchases, targeted lending and our forward guidance.”
On Friday, Reuters quoted five sources as saying that the central bank is unlikely to reduce its already-record low policy rate to counter the coronavirus-induced slowdown, as it would have a limited impact on the economy. Besides, the euro’s exchange rate is still within its historical range, despite having rallied by 14% against the dollar since March.
The markets were caught off guard last week after Dutch central bank’s governor Klaas Knot signaled scope for a deeper cut in the Deposit Facility Rate, which is currently at minus 0.5%.
On the other hand, Bank of America Global Research sees a scope for a downside correction in the coming week “The EU economy is weak and is weakening further. The lockdown continues, and vaccination has been disappointingly slow,” the bank noted.
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