focusing almost exclusively on what central bankers have to say. is that not dangerous, and does that not lead to more volatility? central banks have always influenced the markets – that is how monetary policy works. at the moment, however, there is exceptional nervousness worldwide. the prospective change in monetary policy in the united states and the united kingdom is contributing to this, as are worries about china and emerging economies and major geopolitical risks. at the same time, market participants are making important changes to their business models and adapting to new regulation. this uncertainty and volatility cannot mean that we stop doing our job. we must nevertheless be extremely careful. in an environment of great uncertainty, we as the ecb should look beyond short - term volatility and stay calm. concern about a hard landing for the chinese economy has recently been growing. how concerned about this are you? the depreciation of the renminbi can be seen as a symptom of a slowdown in the chinese economy, at least in the export sector. that is a reminder of the major global uncertainty that we face. here in the euro area, we should see this as a warning about the importance of strong domestic demand. strong exports are a sign of competitiveness, and as such they are a good thing, but it would be unreasonable to base the long - term growth model for the euro area on exports alone. that would make us totally dependent on global growth, particularly growth in emerging market economies. euro area countries must strengthen domestic demand, and above all private investment, in order to make themselves more resilient. what is your assessment of the chinese central bank ’ s decision to change the way in which the renminbi is pegged to the us dollar, which has led to a strong devaluation and stoked fears of an increased currency war? fundamentally, it means a step towards an exchange rate system which is more strongly determined by the markets. that is generally a good thing ; it strengthens the resilience of the global economy and is in line with the g20 ’ s recommendations. within this framework, i trust the chinese authorities not to use the exchange rate as a policy instrument. that would go against the recommendations of the g20. would the ecb welcome the renminbi being part of the currency basket for the imf ’ s special drawing rights? fundamentally, i am convinced that it will happen anyway in time because china ’ s global significance continues to

is needed at the national level. greece is undoubtedly an extreme example, but it is also a useful warning of what happens to confidence when a country departs significantly from the consensus and the agreed rules. this kind of thing must never happen again. second, we need more risk sharing, meaning solidarity for countries which have experienced shocks. and more solidarity means transfer payments between euro area countries? bis central bankers ’ speeches no, euro area solidarity does not mean permanent transfers. it is about supporting a country which is in difficulty, but only temporarily, and it is conditional on efforts being made to return to balance. the euro area is based on the principle that it is not a transfer union. one can dream of a completely different model – a federal state with transfers which are legitimised by a common political institution – but that is not the system we have today, and i do not see any political will to change that. the debate about greece has revealed fundamentally different economic ideas and political cultures in the euro area countries. will these centrifugal forces break up the euro area some day? we have to be careful here, as that can quickly become a self - fulfilling prophecy. the more you talk about it, the more people think nationalistically again and stop trusting europe – and when people do not trust europe, europe becomes part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. europe has always thrived on the diversity of its models, ideas and cultures. we need to prevent economic divergence from becoming so large that it threatens the survival of the euro area. but diversity as such is not a bad thing ; it also promotes best practices and competition. let ’ s talk about monetary policy. some economists are already speculating that the renewed drop in oil prices could ensure that the inflation rate, which was 0. 2 % in july, falls below 0 % again. longer - term inflation expectations have also fallen again slightly. are you starting to get worried again? we do not wake up every morning and look at the economic indicators in order to decide whether to raise or lower interest rates or whether to stop or expand qe. we have a medium - term perspective. we have oriented our monetary policy stance – with low and even negative interest rates and forward guidance, together with bond purchases – towards a long time horizon. hence, we have said that those purchases can run until at least september 2016, or later if necessary. there was a good reason for this long - term focus, namely