StatsGuru: Taking stock of ECB's tightening

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The European Central Bank doubled down on easy monetary policy last week. As Table 1 shows, ECB refinancing interest rates have already dropped to zero - deposit rates are now negative.

Meanwhile, as Table 2 shows, the ECB's quadrupling of its quantitative easing sustains the recent expansion of its balance sheet again to prop up European economies. Growth in several large European economies has turned solidly positive, as Table 3 shows - although Germany is no longer growing at the scorching pace it was earlier. However, many are yet to recover the level of GDP that were at before the crisis, as Table 4 reveals. The debt-to-GDP ratio, in Table 5, is still worrying in several countries, and so is the government deficit - though countries like Spain have worked to reduce it, as Table 6 shows.

Yields on European government paper may have reversed a lengthy decline, as Table 7 suggests, but spreads between southern and northern euro zone countries remain intact. The ECB's expansionism has led to a medium-term downward trend for the euro against some currencies, such as the renminbi, as shown in Table 8.