She noted that ample monetary stimulus is still necessary to support the economic recovery and to safeguard medium-term price stability, the reason why the ECB reconfirms its accommodative monetary policy stance.

The central bank has taken a series of policy measures since early March to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on the eurozone economy. In its last policy meeting in early June, the ECB expanded the PEPP by 600 billion euros (685 billion U.S. dollars) to a total of 1,350 billion euros, as well as extending the horizon of the purchases.

ECB data showed purchases under the PEPP exceeded 360 billion euros in total at the end of June. It bought a net 17.5 billion euros of bonds via PEPP in the week to July 10, compared with about 20 billion euros the week earlier.

Lagarde said the pace slowed down a bit recently because the market became more stable and fragmentation risks were significantly reduced. However, she said the ECB baseline is to use the entire envelope of PEPP, unless there are significant upside surprises.

Responding to a question regarding the capital key, a benchmark that requires the ECB to buy bonds in proportion to the size of each eurozone economy, Lagarde said temporary deviation from the capital key is part of the flexibility principle applied to the program.

EXPECTATION

At the upcoming EU summit, policymakers from the bloc's 27 member states are expected to vote for the EU long-term budget as well as the recovery fund Next Generation EU. Next Generation EU, totaling 750 billion euros, will consist of 500 billion euros in grants and 250 billion in loans.

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