David Zahn: Will Italy affect Europe's tapering timeline?

The European Central Bank (ECB) started its quantitative easing (QE) programme in March 2015 and, later this month, we finally expect some concrete details on a timeline for wrapping it up. Officially, QE is due to end in September this year and yet, with eurozone growth data softer recently and inflation also relatively muted, we think it would be premature for the ECB to embark on a tightening cycle. So our expectation is that current ECB president Mario Draghi will extend the asset-buying programme at least to the end of this year and most likely into 2019. David Zahn: Uncertainty ...