Euro falls; stock, bond prices soar as Draghi pulls out the stops

London

THE euro tumbled, and stock and bond prices soared following European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi's unexpected quantitative easing (QE) of a further 20 billion euros (S$30.5 billion) boost to 80 billion euros a month.

The central bank also announced a cut to all three of its interest rates and expanded its asset-buying programme to investment grade non-bank corporate bonds. Markets soared because Mr Draghi's bazooka exceeded expectations of 70 billion euros a month. As European economies struggle under the burden of a flood of migrants, fears of Brexit, high debt and a slower Chinese economy, the ECB president continued to pursue his "whatever it takes" excessive easy monetary policy that has raised bond purchases to a staggering 960 billion euros a year from an already high 720 billion euros.