ECB European Central Bank

European Central Bank: Jan. 22 Xinhua -- The European Central Bank ECB decided on Thursday to start quantitative easing by purchasing public and private securities in a bid to address prolonged low inflation. , according to Xinhua China. Annual inflation rate in the euro zone dipped to negative territory in December 2014 and reached minus 0.2 percent despite ECB previous stimulating efforts of cutting interest rates and buying private sector bonds and asset-backed securities. ECB President Mario Draghi said the purchasing would start in March 2015 with a monthly amount of 60 billion euros about 69.48 billion U.S. dollars , and was intended to last until the end of September 2016, but would in any case be conducted until the ECB saw a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation which is consistent with its medium-term inflation maintenance target of below, but close to, 2 percent. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.