RBS said combined variants of QE will run at about €30bn a month over the first phase. This is far less than the bond-buying in the US, Britain and Japan as a share of GDP. It is unlikely to have much macro-economic effect at this late stage. “They are behind the curve but if core inflation falls to zero, the volume of QE could accelerate very quickly,” said Giles Gale, the bank’s rates strategist.