christine lagarde : remarks delivered at the bank of greece on the occasion of the external governing council monetary policy meeting in athens speech by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, at the official dinner of the bank of greece, athens, 25 october 2023. * * * before i start, i should mention that – as we are in our so - called " quiet period " – i will not be making any remarks on current or future monetary policy. i would like to thank the bank of greece for hosting our dinner tonight. and thank you for the tremendous effort you have put into organising this external governing council meeting at your impressive headquarters here in athens. standing in this hall, i am struck by the overwhelming sense of continuity with the past. so much of what we consider to be european civilisation has emerged from these surroundings. this is the home of pericles and the cradle of democracy. it gave us socrates, plato, aristotle and the foundations of our philosophy. the ancient greeks taught us mathematics via euclid, science via archimedes and poetry through homer. and this is not to mention the timeless contributions to theatre, art and architecture that greek civilisation has bequeathed to us. over millennia, these different threads have been central to forming an idea of what it means to be european : one based on democracy, justice and reason. and without this idea, i find it hard to imagine that europeans would have been able to share a single currency. so, the very fact that we are here today owes much to the history of this place. but what the brightest minds of this country have also taught us is that it is not only the destination that matters, but how we are changed by the journey to get there. as modern greece's most celebrated poet, constantine cavafy, wrote in his poem ithaca : " keep ithaca always in your mind. arriving there is what you're destined for. " but by the time you reach the island, you will be " wealthy with all you've gained on the way ". and this sentiment, i think, speaks to the story of greece in recent times. the people of greece have been on a long journey. it has been a hard journey. but they never lost sight of the destination. and much has been gained along the way. 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches as we all know, the crisis that erupted in 2009 – and the programme of fiscal adjustment and structural reforms it en

benoit cœure : interview in the yomiuri shimbun interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in the yomiuri shimbun, conducted by mr tadashi isozumi in japan and published on 20 may 2016. * * * you are attending the g7 finance ministers ’ meeting in sendai. what do you think the most important topic for discussion will be? the group of seven ( g7 ) countries are faced with a common challenge : how can they escape from this low growth, low inflation environment? what is important is that they cooperate and act together. to address future challenges, there needs to be a combination of multiple policies. in order to prevent euro area inflation from being too low for too long, the ecb has brought short - term interest rates to levels close to zero or negative, and is providing forward guidance on the future monetary policy stance. we are also implementing quantitative monetary easing of €80 billion [ about 10 trillion yen ] per month at least until march 2017, primarily by purchasing government bonds but also, starting next month, by purchasing bonds issued by non - financial companies. these actions are mutually reinforcing and in particular negative rates are reinforcing the impact of qe. negative rates are also hurting the financial industry … negative interest rates impose direct costs on some industries : the banking industry, the pension funds industry and the insurance industry. but so far the overall impact on bank revenue has been positive, thanks to higher loan volumes and lower risk provisions. in addition, the money market in europe has been functioning at negative rates for almost two years without any disruptions. the ecb is currently applying a – 0. 4 % interest rate to money deposited by banks on their central bank account. it is in principle possible to cut this rate further, but there is currently no plan to do so. in march the ecb decided to lend money at a fixed rate over four years to banks which increase their loans to households and companies. we have a lending volume benchmark, and the rate will be as low as – 0. 4 % for those banks which outperform their benchmark by a sufficient margin. we are convinced that these credit easing measures are even more important than the negative interest rate, even if they complement each other. what is the impact of your monetary policy on the real economy, so far? this package of monetary easing policies is supporting short - term growth in a visible