EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi announced massive quantitative easing today in a desperate effort to spark economic growth.

The ECB will inject at least €1.1 trillion (£760 billion) into economies by buying €60bn (£46bn) of bonds per month until September 2016 and possibly longer.

A number of eurozone countries had pushed the bank to print money and buy bonds to kick-start an economic recovery, which savage austerity measures imposed by Brussels have so far prevented from taking root.

In theory, quantitative easing boosts growth because governments buy bonds from financial institutions, lowering interest rates.

Banks are then supposedly more willing to lend to businesses and individuals, who spend more.

But the policy has failed to pay off in Britain, where financial institutions simply used the money to shore up their reserves and refused to invest it in the economy.

Germany has long been opposed to quantitative easing in the eurozone, believing that any relief for the weaker governments would reduce their incentive to impose sweeping spending cuts and labour “reforms” attacking workers’ rights, pay and pensions.

These are required as part of the EU’s race to the bottom with the United States on labour standards, which is designed to make investing in the bloc a more attractive proposition for big business.

But spending cuts and falling tax revenues due to mass unemployment and shrinking pay packets have done such damage to European economies that Mr Draghi has been forced to change tack.