欧洲央行提醒市场准备迎接QE结束

The European Central Bank is to start preparing markets for the end of years of massive bond purchases by shifting its message to investors soon to reflect the strength of the eurozone economy.

欧洲央行(ECB)将开始提醒市场准备好迎接持续多年的大规模债券购买计划的结束，在不久后改变向投资者发出的信息，以反映欧元区经济增长强劲的局面。

Minutes of the ECB’s most recent rate-setting meeting, published on Thursday, showed that policymakers want to tone down references to the region’s recovery and instead shift the bank’s communications to focus on a “continued robust and increasingly self sustaining economic expansion.”

周四公布的欧洲央行最新利率设定会议的纪要显示，政策制定者们希望淡化对该地区复苏的描述，转而将该行的沟通重点放在“持续强劲且日益自我维系的经济扩张”上。

Investors took the minutes of the December 14 meeting as a sign that the ECB’s massive monetary stimulus known as quantitative easing could end sooner than expected.

投资者将12月14日会议的纪要视为一个信号，即欧洲央行的大规模货币刺激计划(即量化宽松政策)可能会比预期更早结束。

The euro moved up 0.7 per cent to $1.2021 — all but wiping out the shared currency’s slip over the wider week and investors also sold eurozone government debt, lifting the yield on German 10-year Bunds back over 0.5 per cent for the first time since October.

欧元兑美元汇率上涨0.7%，至1欧元兑1.2021美元，基本上收复了单一货币在过去一周的失地，投资者也抛售了欧元区政府债券，使德国10年期国债收益率自去年10月以来首次回升至0.5%上方。

The ECB is buying €30bn of bonds each month until September under QE and is expected to keep interest rates at their current record lows until the middle of 2019. Policymakers have promised to hold borrowing costs where they are until way beyond the horizon of their bond buying. The bank has bought a total of €2.3tn of bonds since starting QE in early 2015.

欧洲央行目前在量化宽松框架下每月购买300亿欧元的债券，直至今年9月，且预计直到2019年年中都会将利率维持在目前的历史低位。政策制定者们已承诺继续压低借款成本，直到他们停止购买债券很久之后。自2015年初开始量化宽松操作以来，该央行已总共购入2.3万亿欧元债券。