The ECB will only start raising its key interest rate, currently set at minus 0.5%, once the eurozone inflation “robustly” meets the central bank’s target of just below 2%, Ms. Lagarde said. That is unlikely to happen for several years. The ECB has left open the option of cutting interest rates even further below zero if the economic outlook worsens.

The federal government wants to put more pressure on bituminous coal power plants than previously planned. Power stations could be switched off without compensation as early as 2024. The exit from sub-bituminous coal had been clarified in separate negotiations with the operators. Both are to be brought together in one act of law.

Turkey joined negative rates club after the central bank decision. The central bank’s fifth straight round of easing under governor Murat Uysal pushed its real rate below zero, only months after Turkey boasted one of the highest inflation-adjusted yields in the world. The move brought the benchmark rate to 11.25%. Inflation capped last year at 11.8%.

The German government plans to compensate utility RWE with around 2.6 billion euros for costs related to the country’s planned coal exit. Mining company Mibrag, owned by Czech energy group EPH, is likely to get 1.75 billion euros of compensation. The payments will begin when coal-fired plants are turned off until the broad final coal exit date.

Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan is finding it is hard to revert to normal monetary policy without risking an unwanted appreciation of the franc. Five years since Jordan jolted markets by introducing negative interest rates, the currency’s strength means there’s little chance he’ll be able to end the controversial policy any time soon.

Only 276 new wind turbines with an output of 940 MW were put into operation in 2019. Compared to the average expansion in the past 5 years, it is a decrease of 77%. The reasons are long approval procedures, insufficiently designated areas and many lawsuits. Many local initiatives against the construction of wind turbines have been formed.

Green bonds are red hot. Issuance smashed through projections in 2019 and will continue expanding this year as sustainability minded investors snap up almost every deal that hits the market. Moody’s had to revise its projection for the year 2019 from $200 billion to $250 billion. The average offering is more than three times oversubscribed.

The Finish EU presidency, the European Commission and the European Parliament on Monday evening all agreed on the common classification system for environmentally-sustainable investment. The final confirmation will be done by EU ambassadors on Wednesday and by a plenary vote that will probably take place in January 2020.

Negative yields are forcing insurers to diversify their investments. They are adding more esoteric fixed-income assets, private assets and real estate. Insurance-owned asset managers have struggled to adapt. They are at risk of losing business to external, independent asset managers with expertise in private debt, private equity and real estate.

Because green bond issues tend to be smaller, they tend to be less liquid. A green bond is (1) a regular bond plus (2) some green promises. Denmark’s proposed innovation is to sell those parts separately, a conventional government bond and a green certificate, which is a zero-coupon bond with zero redemption at maturity and can be traded separately.

After five years of negative rates imposed by the European Central Bank, German lenders are breaking the last taboo: Charging retail clients for their savings starting with very first euro in the their accounts. They are preparing for a prolonged period of negative rates as Europe’s economy slows. In September, the ECB reduced the deposit rate to minus 0.5%.

The head of investments at Finland’s Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co. says his industry is “just starting to see what kind of new challenges negative rates will cause.” The steps he’s taken so far have led away from easy-to-sell assets, as liquidity becomes a luxury. It’s a way to preserve returns, but means delving into assets that might be hard to offload.