Economic pain in the euro zone will remain intense for a long while yet

Just like at the previous press conference in early March, ECB President Draghi highlighted the effectiveness of the bond purchases. He said that lending had improved, that market based inflation expectations had increased and that economists had raised their forecasts for economic growth considerably.

Commerzbank said - "This was a bit too much self-praise. Survey shows that more than two thirds of banks have "basically not" used the additional liquidity from the sale of assets to the ECB to grant more loans to businesses. And according to the survey, they will probably remain reluctant to lend in the coming six months."

The bond purchases will do little to provide a lift for economic growth. The economic pain in the euro zone will remain intense for a long while yet, which is evident in the high unemployment rate of 11.3%. 

"We have only raised our 2015 growth forecast from 0.8% to 1.2% since the start of the year. Given this low growth rate, it should take until mid-2016 for real GDP in the euro zone to return to its pre-crisis levels. Disappointments are therefore likely, especially since the ECB's growth forecast for 2016 is very optimistic (1.9%; Commerzbank: 1.3%)." says Commerzbank 

The highly indebted countries will continue to press for an extremely loose monetary policy via their representatives on the ECB Council. Perhaps this is why, despite his positive comments on the bond purchase programme, Draghi emphasises that this programme will only be effective when "fully" implemented. 

"We still expect that the ECB will continue buying bonds beyond September 2016." - adds Commerzbank