Open-Ended Stimulus for European Central Bank Draws Fire

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A member of the European Central Bank’s rate-setting committee has criticized the bank’s decision to leave its bond-buying stimulus program running without a clear end date.

Jens Weidmann, who sits on the ECB’s 25-member governing council as head of Germany’s national central bank, the Bundesbank, said in the text of a Friday speech in Paris that “in my view, however, a clear end of the net purchases would have been indicated.”

Weidmann repeated his criticism of the purchases, saying they “erase the boundary between monetary policy and fiscal policy” — that is, that they support government borrowing as well as lowering market interest rates.

ECB President Mario Draghi said Thursday there was a “large majority” in the governing council in favor of purchases through September 2018 and longer if needed.