Chatfeild-Roberts eyes Europe in expectation of first quarter QE

Jupiter's John Chatfeild-Roberts has predicted the European Central Bank (ECB) will unveil a long-awaited quantitative easing programme at the start of next year, boosting the region's equity markets in the process.

With Europe struggling to emerge from recession, pressure has been building on the ECB to go further than its current plans to buy asset-backed securities and ease liquidity conditions to help kickstart bank lending. Although some analysts have suggested the central bank could announce full-blown easing – including sovereign debt purchases – as early as this week, comments from ECB vice president Vitor Constancio published last week appear to support a slight delay. Constancio said the central bank would look at additional easing measures in Q1 next year if necessary, supporting Chatf...