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ECB purchases €9.75 billion of public-sector debt last week.

Financial Markets

The European Central Bank said on Monday it purchased €9.75 billion ($10.3 billion) of public -sector debt
in the first week of a stimulus program to inject more than €1 trillion into the Eurozone. Under the ECB’s
plan, it plans to buy €60 billion a month of mainly government bonds with the object of lifting the currency-
bloc’s inflation from below zero toward the target of just under 2%. The ECB intends to publish more
information, including weekly updates of total amount of settled bond purchases and details of bond
maturities on monthly basis starting in April.

European shares extended their gains, with German stocks reaching a fresh record high, as amid a
recovery in the euro against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.9% to close at its highest
level since June 2007, with Germany’s DAX index climbing 2.2%. The European Central Bank’s QE
program started last Monday helped pushed European shares up for a six consecutive week. The



High Income Economies

With a jump in utilities output being partially offset by a drop in mining output, U.S. industrial production
inched up 0.1% (m/m) in February, better than the downwardly revised 0.3% decrease in January.
 Economists had expected an increase of 0.3% compared to the 0.2% increase originally reported for
January. The modest uptick in production came as utilities output soared 7.3% with the severe wintery
conditions, which was partially offset by mining output falling 2.5%.



Developing Economies

East Asia and Pacific

With imports weakening due to the continued slowdown in China, Indonesia's foreign trade surplus came
in at $738m surplus for February, larger than economists’ forecast of $635m but less than January’s
upwardly revised surplus of 744m. Exports fell 16% (y/y) in February, exceeding January’s revised 7.7%
dip. Imports fell 16.2% less than the decline of 15.5% in January.

South Asia

Marking the fourth decline in a row, India’s wholesale price index declined 2.1% (y/y) following a 0.4% fall
in January and a downwardly revised decrease of 0.5% for December. The latest decline was more-than-
expected and was largely led by decreases in fuel prices. Economists had forecast a 0.8% decrease.
 Month-on-month, the wholesale price index slumped 1.4% in February.

March 16, 2015


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The Global Daily is an informal briefing on global economic and financial developments compiled by the
World Bank’s Development Economics Prospects Group. Recent issues, together with analysis of a
variety of macroeconomic topics, covered by the Group, may be found at:
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