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Polling 50 bond strategists across the European market this week, the news agency found a 48 per cent possibility that the ECB could resort to the extreme measure of quantitative easing, with the majority of those who saw it as a possibility expecting it to happen before March 2012.
"Only the ECB has the power to calm market tension in the short term while we wait for peripheral governments to approve reforms, key to reviving market confidence," Thomas Costerg at Standard Chartered told Reuters.
The rising bond prices of major eurozone countries such as Italy and France has been seen as a cause for concern over recent days. It has even had an impact beyond Europe, with the Dow Jones dropping 0.42 per cent yesterday to 11,855.72.
Posted by Greg Secker
