ECB's week of mixed signals shows stimulus path still uncertain

Frankfurt

THE European Central Bank's (ECB) top officials are still feeling their way towards the exit.

At the end of a week in which Executive Board member Peter Praet, the institution's chief economist, railed against the idea that interest rates might be raised before the end of bond purchases, his colleague Benoit Coeure, in charge of market operations, said that the discussion is "not a taboo".

As two of the most influential members of the six-person board that recommends ECB policy, the mixed message could be a complication for investors trying to judge when negative rates and the 60 billion euros (S$89.3 billion) a month of debt purchases will end. But for the central bank, especially given fresh inflation data la…