European Central Bank officials seem irked that they are not being taken seriously by markets - risking a show of force in Frankfurt that may seem at odds with a struggling euro economy.
To be fair, the level of uncertainty on what happens next - both within the major central banks and the investment world - is high and rising. Long-term visibility is unusually low. Also spotlighting a dispersion in private forecasters’ inflation outlooks to show a ‘fat right-hand tail’ indicating a significant probability of inflation settling above 2.5%, she stressed the ECB could not commit to ending its campaign yet.
Long-term real yields from benchmark German government bond markets are positive again this year for the first time in almost a decade. But they have fallen almost 20bp from just before the last ECB rate hike to just above 0.1% now.