FRANKFURT : The European Central Bank has boosted its pandemic emergency support program by an unexpectedly large 600 billion euros to 1.35 trillion euros ($1.5 trillion) in an effort to keep affordable credit flowing to the economy during the steep downturn caused by the virus outbreak.
The new stimulus comes on top of added spending by European governments and similar stimulus efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and other central banks around the globe as the world tries to cope with a sharp, simultaneous blow to both developing and rich economies.
The central bank for the 19 countries that use the euro also extended its monetary stimulus program to at least the end of June next year, from the end