Mario Draghi led the European Central Bank (ECB) into a new era, pledging to buy government bonds in an asset-purchase program worth at least 1.1 trillion euros (US$1.3 trillion) to counter the threat of a deflationary spiral.

The ECB president unveiled a quantitative-easing program of 60 billion euros per month until at least the end of September 2016 in a once-and-for-all push to revive inflation and the euro-area economy. The region's 19 national central banks were handed responsibility for 80 percent of the additional purchases and put on the hook for their own losses, a moved intended to assuage critics.

A near-stagnant economy and the risk of deflation forced Draghi's hand six years after the Federal Reserve took a similar step to inject cash into the U.S. The 67-year-old Italian's gamble is that the benefits of quantitative easing—should it work—outweigh the threat of a backlash in Germany, whose politicians and central bankers have vehemently opposed the move.