ECB concerns over U.S Fed Reserve tapering plans

ECB concerns over U.S Fed Reserve tapering plans

The European Central Bank’s bi-annual Financial Stability Review was published yesterday and highlighted concerns over the U.S Federal Reserve’s tapering plans.

Tapering of America’s $85 billion a month asset purchase scheme has been prolonged since October in attempts to protect the U.S and global economy in its slow process of recovery.

This has positively impacted the European stocks, with increases in London’s 100 index, Paris’s Cac, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index. However, the risk of disturbance in the vulnerable global financial system is high and the European Central Bank has cautioned that any movement towards tapering could cause market shocks.

Janet Yellen is the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and is expected to start the tapering of the Federal Reserve’s asset purchasing scheme in March 2014. In its Financial Stability Review the ECB was clear that it felt any movement by the Federal Reserve towards tapering would be detrimental towards the foreign exchange market and future asset price developments.

Emerging market economies in particular have absorbed pressure from the temperamental foreign exchange market which occurred as a result of changes to U.S financial policies. The ECB advised that “stable and predictable macroeconomic policies” and “forward guidance” would be required to stabilise financial policies and avoid returning to an economic crisis.