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| - The European Central Bank has defended its huge bond purchase stimulus programme as not excessive when weighed against the risks, minutes published Thursday showed, after a German court required it to justify the scheme. In a shock decision in May, Germany's Constitutional Court threatened to block the Bundesbank, the central bank, from participating in the stimulus plan unless the ECB could show within three months that its government debt purchases are not "disproportionate". While the court made clear that its ruling did not affect the ECB's programmes on shoring up the economy in the coronavirus pandemic, it has raised uncertainty over a key crisis-fighting tool at a time when Europe is facing the biggest economic storm since World War II. The Asset Purchase Programme (APP) is a "proportionate" measure helping to deliver the ECB's price stability target, "with sufficient safeguards having been built into the design of these programmes to limit potential adverse side effects," the bank said during its last monetary policy setting meeting. Describing it as an "effective tool" helping to deliver on the mandate of price stability, the ECB also highlighted its efficiency. ING analyst Carsten Brzeski said the minutes "are clearly an attempt to address the concerns of the German constitutional court without explicitly saying so". "It looks as if the ECB found an elegant way to come to a smooth end. Next week, when the German parliament discusses the ruling and the possible next steps, chances are high that some kind of face-saving workaround will be found." bur-hmn/mfp/bmm
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