ECB’s Nowotny: ECB will end asset buys this year

Ewald Nowotny, European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member and the Austrian Central Bank Head, is out on the wires, via Reuters, saying that the ECB will end asset buys this year but it was too early to say when interest rate hikes will begin. 

He further added that the central bank could lift deposit rate to -0.2%, from current -0.4%, to start the process of rate hikes. 

The comments lifted the shared currency sharply higher, with the EUR/USD pair surging nearly 50-pips to near 2-week tops and closer to the 1.2400 handle.