by the adequacy standard. ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues until recently, hardly anyone could have imagined that the world would face the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the energy crisis and such heightened geopolitical tensions at almost the same time. at present, there are many great unknowns – the duration of the ukraine conflict and its possible long ‐ term consequences for global trade, as well as the prices and availability of energy, industrial raw materials and food. uncertainty also refers to the complexity of the functioning of global markets in the conditions of geopolitical tensions and global value chain disruptions, speed of normalisation of monetary policies of leading central banks and the effects on global financial conditions, etc. for the time being, we judge the risks to the projection of global and domestic growth to be tilted to the downside, and those to inflation – to the upside. as the economic policy makers, we are faced with multiple challenges. you may, however, rest assured that the government and the nbs will pursue a consistent and responsible economic policy and do everything to make sure our economy is strengthened further, just as we did after the pandemic broke out. in this way, we will increase our economy ’ s resilience further and stand ready to respond to all challenges coming from the international environment. going forward, we will continue to carefully monitor and evaluate factors from the domestic and international environment, which will determine our future decisions and steps. depending on geopolitical developments and the movement in key inflation factors from the domestic and international environment, the nbs will estimate whether there is a need to tighten monetary conditions further or whether the effects of past tightening ensure a sustainable return of inflation within the target tolerance band over the projection horizon. delivering price and financial stability in the medium term remains the nbs ’ s monetary policy priority, while supporting further economic growth and development, a further rise in employment and a favourable investment environment. i now give the floor to my colleagues from the economic research and statistics department to present our latest projections in more detail.

jean - claude trichet : monetary policy in uncertain times speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the bank of finland 200th anniversary conference, helsinki, 5 may 2011. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak at your conference on monetary policy. it is remarkable to think that the bank of finland will celebrate its two hundredth anniversary this year. the ecb, as the youngest central bank in the world, but with such an extraordinarily solid historical legacy in the eurosystem, looks at such a storied history in the european monetary team with pride. this conference occurs at a point in time when central banks and governments of the advanced economies continue to face a wide range of challenges. i would like to start by reflecting in front of you on a challenge that, at first sight, may seem not directly related to monetary policy : strengthening economic governance in the euro area. strong economic governance – and therefore closer economic union – is however the fundamental counterpart to the single monetary policy. with a centralised monetary policy but decentralised fiscal and economic policies – in the absence of a federal institutional framework – those policies have to be placed in a solid framework and appropriately coordinated. the duty of public institutions is to fulfil their mandate and, by doing so, to meet the expectations of the citizens. the ecb ’ s governing council has done so and fulfilled public expectations in line with its mandate. citizens in europe expect overall stable prices and their purchasing power to be maintained. over the first 12 years, the ecb has delivered an average annual rate of inflation of 1. 97 %. citizens expect a stable economy and public authorities that are alert and effective in combating crises. the ecb has taken unprecedented steps to mitigate the effects of the recent crisis on the real economy by ensuring the flow of credit to the households and firms and preserving financial stability – of which i will talk more later. in the field of economic governance, however, public institutions still need to make a “ quantum leap ” to meet public expectations. european citizens recognise the value of closer economic cooperation, particularly those in the euro area. surveys indicate that, on average in euro area countries, more than four out of five euro area citizens are in favour of greater policy coordination between countries to overcome the crisis. this is something, which i consider very important : citizens want a stronger and better coordination of economic and financial policies in