And fourth, since 2014 the ECB has been implementing a quantitative easing programme entailing the large-scale purchase of private and public assets which, in its first two years of application, will reach an amount equivalent to 17% of total euro area GDP. At present the purchase of assets under this programme covers nearly the whole range of marketable securities eligible as collateral in Eurosystem operations: secured bonds issued by banks; securitisations whose underlying assets are loans to the non-financial private sector; public debt of the central and regional governments; supranational agencies and institutions; and, more recently, non-bank corporate bonds. Since April this year the ECB has been purchasing € billion per month of these securities and the total amount of the portfolio built up for monetary policy purposes now exceeds € trillion. I think it pertinent to add three additional comments on the measures set in train by the ECB: The first is that they are no different from those adopted by other large central banks. Thus, for example, the key policy rate is now also negative in countries like Japan, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. Also, asset purchase programmes and the strengthening of liquidity provision are instruments shared with other G7 central banks, while the publication of forward guidance also forms part of the Federal Reserve’s toolkit. The second comment relates to potential undesirable side effects which these non-standard policies may have on financial stability, such as the overvaluation of certain assets or downward pressure on banking sector profitability.

In this connection, it is advisable to specifically monitor the segments at risk and, if necessary, activate macro-prudential measures. The third and last comment relates to the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the ECB over the last few years. Our latest Annual Report specifically devoted a chapter to analysing this matter. The Banco de España’s analysis concludes that monetary policy has contributed decisively to easing the credit conditions of euro area households and firms, improving the conditions of access to and cost of bank credit and significantly reducing the degree of financial fragmentation reached during the sovereign debt crisis between 2011 and 2013. Bank lending rates have reached record lows. Surveys on access to financing by small and medium-sized enterprises, which are highly dependent on bank credit, reveal that these firms have benefited particularly from the improved credit conditions. Our estimates suggest that the package of monetary policy measures adopted by the ECB Governing Council since mid-2014 has had a cumulative effect in 2015–2016 for the whole of the euro area of 1.4 percentage points on GDP and of 1.2 percentage points on prices. These figures are similar in Spain. However, these positive results cannot give rise to complacency. The risks of de-anchoring of inflation expectations remain a cause for concern. It is true that the sharp fall in oil prices since mid-2014 has exerted downward pressure on inflation, but it is no less true that weak domestic demand has played a vital role, keeping core inflation below 1% over the last two years.