Mario Draghi is about to get an idea of how far reality falls short of his intentions. A round of long-term loans by the European Central Bank to lenders this week won’t even cover the repayments they owe from a previous program, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. The operation could show that stimulus measures the ECB president says are “intended” to add as much as 1t euros ($1.23t) to the financial system won’t suffice without large-scale buying of assets such as government bonds. Draghi has promised the ECB will act should current stimulus prove insufficient when it is reassessed early next year.
