axel a weber : the ecb and its watchers - 1999 - 2006 speech by professor axel a weber, president of the deutsche bundesbank, at the cfs research conference : the ecb and its watchers viii, frankfurt am main, 5 may 2006. * * * review - seven years of “ the ecb and its watchers ” ladies and gentlemen, it ’ s a real pleasure for me to give you a short review of the ecb watcher conferences over the period from 1999 until today. most of you will know that i myself organised this event from 1999 until 2003. so be warned : my review of this conference and its impact might be slightly positively biased! but nevertheless, my primary conclusion is very likely to be undisputed. for good reasons, the ecb watcher conferences organised by the cfs have become a central part of the yearly agenda for everyone interested in a serious monitoring of european monetary policy. starting in 1999, we wanted the conference to fulfil three main functions : • firstly, the professional ecb watchers should be provided with a regular platform for communicating their evaluation of ecb policy actions directly to the ecb policy makers ( rather than addressing them indirectly through the press ). • secondly, the conferences should give ecb representatives the opportunity to directly respond to the watchers ’ assessments. • finally, the conferences should generate an intellectual competition among the various monitoring groups. reviewing the conferences that have taken place so far, i can conclude that, happily, these objectives have been achieved. especially the direct communication between watchers and ecb officials is a special asset and a central part of the uniqueness of these events. one could add that the conferences have not only generated an intellectual competition among watcher groups, but have also posed an intellectual challenge to the ecb and its officials participating in a wide array of panels. as a result, not only the public, but also the ecb and the entire eurosystem have learnt a lot from the exchange with watcher groups in the context of the annual watcher conferences. over the years, the topics discussed at these events have covered all issues that were and are still highly relevant for monetary policy in emu. let me give you some examples : • monetary policy strategy • monetary and fiscal policy coordination • central bank communication • european financial integration • eu enlargement • international role of the euro • global imbalances but i do not want to provide you with further details with respect to

year and about 3½ % in 2023, as consumer spending on services rebounds and business investment and exports show solid growth. putting all this together, governing council concluded that, consistent with our forecast, a rising path for interest rates will be required to moderate spending growth and bring inflation back to target. of course, we discussed when to begin increasing our policy interest rate. our approach to monetary policy throughout the pandemic has been deliberate, and we were mindful that omicron will dampen spending in the first quarter. so we decided to keep our policy rate unchanged last week, remove our commitment to hold it at its floor, and signal that rates can be expected to increase going forward. the timing and pace of those increases will be guided by the bank ’ s commitment to achieving the 2 % inflation target. this ends our emergency policy setting and signals that interest rates will now be on a rising path. this is a significant shift in monetary policy, and we judged that it is appropriate to move forward in a series of steps. by being clear and deliberate, we are really trying to cut through the noise so that monetary policy is a source of confidence rather than another source of uncertainty. let me say a final word about another important monetary policy tool — our balance sheet. the bank will keep the holdings of government of canada bonds on our balance sheet roughly constant at least until we begin to raise the policy interest rate. at that time, we will consider exiting the reinvestment phase and reducing the size of our balance sheet by allowing maturing government of canada bonds to roll off. as we have done in the past, before implementing changes to our balance sheet management, we will provide more information on our plans. with that, senior deputy governor rogers and i will be happy to take your questions. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches content type ( s ) : press, speeches and appearances, opening statements 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches