christine lagarde : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 23 january 2020. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we expect them to remain at their present or lower levels until we have seen the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2 % within our projection horizon, and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics. we will continue to make net purchases under our asset purchase programme ( app ) at a monthly pace of €20 billion. we expect them to run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of our policy rates, and to end shortly before we start raising the key ecb interest rates. we also intend to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the app for an extended period of time past the date when we start raising the key ecb interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. today the governing council also decided to launch a review of the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy. further details about the scope and timetable of the review will be published in a press release today at 15 : 30 cet. the incoming data since our last meeting are in line with our baseline scenario of ongoing, but moderate, growth of the euro area economy. in particular, the weakness in the manufacturing sector remains a drag on euro area growth momentum. however, ongoing, albeit decelerating, employment growth and increasing wages continue to support the resilience of the euro area economy. while inflation developments remain subdued overall, there are some signs of a moderate increase in underlying inflation in line with expectations. the unfolding monetary policy measures are underpinning favourable financing conditions for all sectors of the economy. in particular, easier borrowing conditions for firms and households are supporting consumer spending and business investment. this will sustain the euro area expansion, the build - up of domestic price pressures and, thus, the robust convergence of inflation to our medium

should not, in my view, be considered a drawback of the strategy. on the contrary, it actually constitutes the essence of a robust approach to monetary policymaking. attempts to reconcile results yielded by different approaches stimulate deeper analysis and ultimately lead to a better understanding of the economic situation. this is certainly something i can see from my experience at the ecb. an assessment of the first two years of experience ladies and gentlemen, after nearly two years of experience, i can assert that the introduction of the single currency has been a resounding success in many respects. during its short period of existence, the ecb can claim to have gained the confidence of investors in the sustained maintenance of price stability in the euro area. the euro has firmly established itself as the second currency in world capital markets. today, we have a unified money market throughout the euro area, while the process of integration of our capital markets is proceeding. the preparations for the introduction of euro - denominated notes and coins - which will make the euro a more tangible reality for the people in the euro area - are progressing satisfactorily. since assuming responsibility for the conduct of monetary policy in the euro area, the ecb has faced a number of difficult challenges. after its first decision to lower its policy interest rates in april 1999, the ecb has raised its policy rates seven consecutive times, starting in november 1999 through until the last move one week ago. these decisions were taken to counteract the emergence of risks to price stability in the euro area. the analyses conducted under both pillars of our strategy corroborated our decisions. the analysis under the second pillar indicated that external shocks, namely the strong increase in oil prices and the depreciation of the euro, were increasingly putting pressure on prices. a passing - through to consumer prices was facilitated by the faster pace of economic growth that was progressively materialising in the euro area. at the same time, the analysis of monetary and credit aggregates under the first pillar of the strategy was also signalling the existence of very generous liquidity conditions in the euro area. this also pointed to potential upside risks to price stability. with respect to these monetary policy decisions, it is clearly too early, given the lags in the impact of monetary policy actions on price developments, to provide a comprehensive assessment. nevertheless, there are clear indications that these decisions have indeed proved effective. first, throughout 1999 and early in 2000, inflation remained at low levels. most of the increase in consumer