The world economy seems to have stabilized in the first months of the year. The underlying growth dynamics, however, remain weak although we expect growth to accelerate somewhat going forward. This year, global output (at PPP exchange rates) will expand by 3.1 percent, which is close to last...

The ECB’s recently launched Expanded Asset Purchasing Programme is similar to the quantitative easing programmes undertaken by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan. While theory suggests that quantitative easing can stimulate economic growth and spur inflation via...