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FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank said on Thursday that it would begin buying hundreds of billions of euros worth of government bonds in an ambitious — though some say belated — attempt to prevent the eurozone from becoming trapped in long-term economic stagnation.
法兰克福——欧洲中央银行周四表示，将开始购买数百亿欧元的政府债券，这是阻止欧元区经济陷入长期停滞状态的雄心勃勃（也有人说是迟来）的尝试。
The long-awaited program, known as quantitative easing, comes after inflation in the 19 countries of the eurozone fell below zero and raised the specter of deflation, a sustained decline in prices that can lead to higher unemployment and that is notoriously difficult to reverse.
人们对这个所谓的量化宽松计划期待已久，它出台于欧元区19个国家的通货膨胀率降到零以下、通货紧缩的幽灵显现之后，通货紧缩指的是可能导致高失业率的商品价格持续下降，这种情况发生后很难扭转。
Programs of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve in the United States and by the Bank of England in Britain have helped the economies of those two countries recover from the global financial crisis more successfully than the eurozone has been able to.
美国的联邦储备银行和英国央行分别实施的量化宽松计划，已帮助这两个国家的经济能够比欧元区更成功地走出全球金融危机。
If successful, quantitative easing would push down market interest rates in the eurozone and make it easier for businesses and consumers to borrow money, helping to stimulate the economy and restore inflation. Quantitative easing could also have a psychological impact, helping to raise expectations that inflation will begin to rise and thus encourage people to spend now rather than wait.
如果成功的话，量化宽松会推动欧元区的市场利率下降，使企业和消费者更容易借钱，有助于刺激经济，恢复通货膨胀。量化宽松政策也可产生一种心理效果，有助于提高对通货膨胀的预期，从而鼓励人们现在就消费，而不是等待。
The decision to begin buying government bonds on the open market came after a debate that lasted months. Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, sought to overcome resistance from German members of the governing council and the broader German public, which regards quantitative easing as a form of wealth transfer to countries like Italy.
在公开市场上开始购买政府债券的决定，是在进行了好几个月的辩论后做出的。欧洲央行行长马里奥·德拉吉(Mario Draghi)寻求克服了来自央行理事会德国成员、以及更广泛的德国大众的阻力，德国认为量化宽松政策是把财富向意大利等国家转移的一种形式。
Although the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England used quantitative easing to rejuvenate their economies, such a program would be more complicated in the eurozone. There is no widely traded, Pan-European government bond similar to United States Treasury securities, which were the main vehicle for the Fed’s program.
虽然美联储和英国央行使用了量化宽松计划来振兴本国的经济，但是在欧元区实施这种计划会更复杂。市场上没有广泛交易的、类似美国国债的泛欧洲政府债，而美国国债是美联储计划的主要工具。
Another question is whether quantitative easing can help fix the eurozone economy, especially since it has taken so long for the central bank to begin a large-scale bond-buying program. Many economists and businesspeople are skeptical.
另一个问题是，量化宽松是否能够帮助恢复欧元区经济，尤其是在欧洲央行等待了这么久之后才开始了其大规模购买债券的计划。许多经济学家和商界人士对此都持怀疑态度。
“I do not believe it will have a major effect whatever will be announced,” said Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of Merck, a German pharmaceutical and chemicals company that is separate from Merck & Company in the United States.
“不管宣布什么，我都不相信会有很大的影响，”德国制药和化学品公司默克的董事长卡尔-路德维希·克雷(Karl-Ludwig Kley)说，德国默克与美国的默克公司相互独立。
“I do not believe bond buying or whatever is the remedy,” Mr. Kley said in an interview at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I do not see, because of these programs, consumers buying more. I do not see companies investing more.”
克雷在参加瑞士达沃斯的世界经济论坛年度会议期间接受参访时说，“我不认为债券购买或什么其他计划是补救措施。我没有看到因为这些计划，消费者购买更多的东西。我没有看到公司做出更多的投资。”
