Dubai – Mubasher: The European Central Bank took steps to expand its stimulus of the eurozone economy on Thursday, extending its bond-purchase program to March 2017.
The bank also said it would increase the penalty it charges banks to keep money in its vaults as a way of pressuring them to lend more.
The bond-buying program, originally planned to run at least through September 2016 will now go at least through March 2017, “or beyond, if necessary,’’ the central bank’s president, Mario Draghi, said at a news conference here. The central bank began buying government bonds and other interest-bearing securities in April.
