european central bank : press conference a€ “ introductory statement introductory statement by mr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank and mr christian noyer, vice - president of the european central bank, at the press conference, held in frankfurt am main, 30 august 2001. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i am here to report on the outcome of today's meeting of the governing council of the ecb, which was also attended by mr. reynders, president of the eu council, and mr. solbes from the european commission. following its regular examination of monetary and economic developments and analysis of their implications for the maintenance of price stability in the euro area, the governing council decided to lower the key ecb interest rates by 25 basis points. the governing council considers that the available evidence points to an improvement in the outlook for price developments. this is particularly apparent from the information under the second pillar of the ecb's monetary policy strategy, while that related to the first pillar remains consistent with a favourable outlook for price stability in the medium term. let me elaborate somewhat on the assessment provided under the two pillars of the monetary policy strategy of the ecb. with regard to the first pillar, the three - month average of the annual growth rates of m3 was 5. 9 % in the period from may to july 2001. however, this figure needs to be corrected for holdings of money market paper and short - term debt securities by non - residents of the euro area, which, according to preliminary estimates, have contributed around three - quarters of a percentage point to annual m3 growth. the increase in the rate of growth of m3 over the past few months must be interpreted carefully. it reflects the relatively flat yield curve and the recent weakness in stock markets, both of which made the holding of short - term deposits and marketable paper included in m3 attractive. as it also reflects the fact that consumers needed a higher level of transaction balances to finance the past rise in energy and food prices, recent increases in m3 growth may be transitory and, hence, do not necessarily have implications for price stability in the medium term. in addition, the annual rate of growth of loans to the private sector, although still high, has continued to decline over recent months. regarding the second pillar, there are clear signals of lower inflationary pressures from the demand side. recent data on economic activity indicate that real gdp growth in 2001 will most likely be lower than was expected a few months ago.

in asean + 3 may reflect east asia's equivalent to europe's “ integrate to avoid further conflict ” imperative. there is also a strong belief that the international institutions are not set up to work in asia's favour and that asia must therefore look after itself – particularly given the large proportion of world reserves held in asia. this has been felt very strongly since the asian crisis and it is no co - incidence that the chiang mai initiative grew around those countries that felt most aggrieved. similarly, countries in this group have more in common than the groups that bridge the pacific. it could also be argued that the size of the arrangement made it a more workable decisionmaking entity, although it is difficult to determine whether this reflects physical numbers or simply the greater uniformity of country interests embodied in the group. reserve pooling arrangements could have occurred within the manila framework group or emeap, but asean + 3 seems to be where the action is at present. just as g10 gravitated from its original narrow specific purpose to become the centre of prudential supervision, asean + 3 might be where the more general foreign exchange rate discussions occur. for our part in australia, we are supportive of these moves, regardless of the forum in which they evolve. obviously, we would like to have a seat at the table, since we believe australia has much to offer from its own experience and resources. we also feel our own policy - making has been enriched through our engagement with asia and we have certainly appreciated the input of like - minded countries from the region in the difficult international debates of recent years. seacen is a longstanding grouping of central bankers, focused on south - east asia, but with membership spread as wide as sri lanka, korea and mongolia. one of the initial aims of seacen was to establish an asean voting group for the imf and the ibrd. the voting group still exists and seacen governors continue to meet annually, although seacen's significant outward contribution appears to be its training and research efforts through the seacen centre. should the chiang mai initiative continue to develop towards an ultimate goal of becoming a regional monetary fund, my view is that we should support it. if there were major developments in this regard, participants presumably would want to assess whether the manila framework group, the apec finance ministers, emeap and seacen are still playing a unique role. the bottom line is that it is probably too early to assess which groups will continue to