Economy & Business, Volume 17, 2023

Abstract: This paper is devoted to the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy, which has undergone significant changes since it was introduced on January 1, 1999. A special focus of the paper is the period from the 2007-2008 global financial crisis until now. With the outbreak of the global financial crisis, the conventional (standard, traditional) monetary policy of the ECB and other world’s leading central banks began to lose its effectiveness. The unconventional course of monetary policy was undertaken mainly to restore the normal functioning of financial markets and financial intermediation in both developed and developing countries after the severe shocks during the global financial crisis. However, in the period following the world financial crisis, a new unprecedented global crisis event occurred – the COVID-19 pandemic. The monetary policy of the ECB and the other leading global central banks continued its unconventional course. The non-standard monetary measures are aimed at countering heightened risks during the acute economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In relation to this the main new trends in the ECB monetary policy that are examined in the paper are the transition from zero and negative key policy nominal interest rates to positive nominal interest rates, and the process of normalization of the ECB monetary policy, i.e. limiting and removing some unconventional monetary measures.