Draghi has financial markets hoping bad news is really good news

Weak economic figures from Japan and China overlooked as European Central Bank chief hints at further stimulus activity

Japan's growth figures were bad. The data for Chinese exports was even worse. A signal for the financial markets to have another dose of the heebie-jeebies? Not a bit of it. This was one of those days when bad news was good news.

The thinking goes as follows. If the Japanese economy shrank by 0.4% in the final three months of 2015 and Chinese exports fell by more than 11%, policymakers will sit up and take notice. Central banks will stimulate activity by cutting interest rates, even when they are already negative, and by expanding their quantitative easing (QE) programmes.