virtually zero in our short - term markets. thus, in the spring of 2001 we stepped into new territory, where no central bank has ever ventured, namely “ quantitative easing ”. here, there are two important points. the first is to set quantitative targets in the form of outstanding balance of current account deposit with the bank and then to aggressively supply abundant liquidity into financial markets. the second is to make a commitment to maintain such an accommodative policy stance until the consumer price index registers a year on year increase of zero percent or above on a sustainable basis. the fundamental aim of this point is to lower long - term interest rates across the board by borrowing future monetary easing through the commitment. furthermore, we are now exploring ways to improve the transmission mechanism of monetary policy so that the beneficial effects of quantitative easing can more smoothly penetrate every corner of the economy. obviously, the war against deflation will not be won with monetary policy alone. all economic agents must review the legacies of past high growth period and make every effort to enlarge the capacity to create value added. it has become clear to us that we will only find a way out of deflation when the efforts of the private sector, the government, and the bank of japan generate synergies in this endeavor. ii. interest in europe i fear my introductory remarks might have been getting too long, so i will move on. in october 1970, shortly after i arrived in paris, the werner report came out, officially advocating economic and monetary union in europe. frankly speaking, as an outsider, i considered the grand idea of the economic and monetary union, however grand it would be, to be no more than an “ adventurous experiment ”. no one could tell where it would go. therefore, i was profoundly moved to witness the introduction of the euro in january 1999 and the conversion of all cash to euro last year. the emu was not just another “ experiment ”. the people of europe gathered their wisdom and courageously marched forward to turn a dream into reality. in this regard, we must remember in particular the efforts that were made to overcome the “ euro pessimism ” of the late seventies and early eighties. to me, the single currency symbolizes many things. the first is the great potentiality that europe has in terms of “ creating history ”. i have nothing but respect for the strong leadership and the persistent efforts that were exerted to complete this job, a job requiring 50 or 100 years to

to the private sector ( peltros : – 0. 25 % ). moreover, to facilitate banks ’ participation in such operations, which are to be conducted until the end of 2021, we have decided that counterparties should benefit from collateral easing measures and that the range of eligible securities accepted as collateral should be temporarily expanded. in combination with the easing of banking supervision rules, such as allowing banks to operate with a lower capital adequacy ratio during the pandemic period and extending the flexibility towards loan repayments, as well as with the provision of government guarantees to loans, the aforementioned monetary policy measures make a decisive contribution to the protection of borrowers and the support of credit expansion. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches following the adoption of the above measures since the pandemic outbreak, the size of the eurosystem ’ s balance sheet has grown from about €4. 7 trillion in early 2020 to more than €6. 9 trillion in december ( over the same period, the balance sheet of the bank of greece has increased from around €110 billion to around €175 billion ). the effectiveness of our prompt and decisive monetary interventions is evidenced by a normalisation in financial conditions and a strengthening of macroeconomic outcomes. as estimated by the ecb1, the package of these measures could add 1. 3 percentage points to euro area gdp growth and 0. 8 percentage points to inflation in the period 2020 – 2022, while it has helped to preserve one million jobs. without these decisions, we would have faced much lower growth rates and more negative inflation rates than those currently observed. nevertheless, there is no room for complacency. we are currently amidst the second wave of the pandemic, which creates renewed uncertainty among citizens. we estimate that this uncertainty will remain elevated until an effective vaccine becomes widely available, which is expected in mid - 2021. until then, the necessary social distancing measures exacerbate the economic fallout of the pandemic and hamper the recovery. in light of the above, fiscal and monetary policies need to remain expansionary and mutually reinforcing, continuing to support citizens ’ incomes, output and consumption across the euro area. we, the members of the governing council, are ready to adjust the instruments available to the ecb as appropriate in order to ensure that inflation moves on a sustained path towards levels consistent with our primary objective of price stability and that the euro area economy will recover. in tandem with our monetary