benoit cœure : interview in the leading european newspaper alliance – lena interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in the leading european newspaper alliance – lena, conducted by mr dominique berns ( le soir ), ms anja ettel ( die welt ) and ms manon malhere ( le figaro ), and published on 11 november 2015. * * * how many bankers have you met this week? you ’ ll have an answer next february, when we will begin publishing the meeting calendars of the members of the ecb ’ s executive board on a regular basis. this will give you access to the list of my meetings in november 2015. the decision to regularly publish the meeting calendars of the executive board members follows on from other initiatives that aim to make the ecb more transparent, in particular publishing the accounts of monetary policy discussions and the new, clearer guidelines on public speaking engagements. regarding the meeting calendars, weren ’ t you pushed into publishing them by the media, to some extent? no, we were already considering doing it. it was a natural decision for us because it reflects current standards for large public institutions, in particular the european commission. if publishing our meeting calendars enables us to avoid misunderstandings, so much the better – it shows that it is a useful thing to do. public debate thus enables us to improve how we operate. you really didn ’ t think that meeting people from bnp paribas on the very same day that the governing council took a major monetary policy decision would arouse suspicions about your independence? do you really think there ’ s a risk there? our independence towards banks is well known. the person in question was passing through frankfurt that day and i can assure you that we didn ’ t discuss monetary policy. to be clear : in such meetings we never divulge sensitive information or indications about the future direction of monetary policy. that is against our rules. publishing your meeting calendars may not be enough. why not implement a “ quiet period ” like the bank of england, during which no meetings are allowed? if we need to tighten our rules because the public has a negative perception of how we conduct ourselves, then we will tighten them. central banks are public institutions and people ’ s perception of what we do is important. but we ’ re not going to stop talking to the market. communicating with market players is a key part of monetary policy, and is

mr duisenberg reports on the outcome of the latest meeting of the ecb governing council introductory statement by the president of the european central bank, dr w f duisenberg at the press conference held in frankfurt on 6 may 1999. ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are here today to report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council of the ecb. the governing council reviewed, as usual, the main monetary, financial and other economic indicators in line with its monetary policy strategy. following this discussion it decided to keep the ecb ’ s interest rates unchanged. the interest rate on the main refinancing operations will thus remain 2. 5 %. in addition, the interest rate on the marginal lending facility will continue to be 3. 5 % and that on the deposit facility will remain 1. 5 %. let me give you some details about our latest assessment of the monetary policy stance and thereby provide explanations for the decisions taken today. overall, monetary developments and our broadly based assessment of future price developments do not signal dangers to price stability over the short and medium term. with regard to monetary developments in the euro area, in march 1999 the 12 - month rate of growth of m3 remained constant at 5. 1 %. while the pace of increase in overnight deposits reduced further, signalling the waning influence of the uncertainties surrounding the launch of the euro, deposits with an agreed maturity of up to two years grew at a stronger pace in march than in february 1999. the latest figure for the three - month moving average of m3 growth, covering the first quarter of 1999, was 5. 2 %. this was 0. 2 percentage point higher than in the previous three - month period, covering the period december 1998 to february 1999. the governing council also noted that the annual rate of growth of total credit was broadly stable at 7. 5 % in march 1999. in line with the assessment it had made on the occasion of its previous meetings, the governing council took the view that recent monetary trends should not be seen as a warning signal with regard to the future evolution of inflation. as we have emphasised in the past, the monetary data in early 1999 may be affected by the special circumstances related to the changeover to stage three of emu. in addition, the three - month moving average of m3 growth remains relatively close to the reference value of 4½ %. as regards financial indicators, i should like to stress that recent developments in bond yields in the