economic activity. the european commission has invited those countries that have fiscal space, such as germany, to use it in the way they consider most appropriate for their economies. those who don ’ t have any fiscal space shouldn ’ t use it or pretend to have it. this applies not just to italy, but also to france. both countries still have some way to go to rebuild their fiscal buffers. many market participants believe that italy could be a source of crisis in europe … it ’ s not for me to talk about politics. but it ’ s true that, economically speaking, italy is a in a difficult juncture. it is the only euro area country that is experiencing a technical recession. and it has not seen an improvement in the labour market, which is another thing that sets it apart from other euro area economies. in the longer term, italy ’ s problem is well known : it is productivity growth. i don ’ t believe that any of this has to do with the euro, otherwise it would be a general problem across the euro area. the response is to focus on the country ’ s strengths, such as its small and medium - sized enterprises. and to use the single market to leverage their strength and help them export to global markets. isolation and protectionism don ’ t work. europe is an asset for our economies. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches it seems to be difficult at the moment to undertake the much discussed reforms to complete the banking union and the capital markets union. do you share this impression? yes, i do, and it ’ s a concern for the ecb. we firmly believe that europe is part of the solution in dealing with the problems faced by european citizens. many citizens in many countries are angry because economic results are not what they should be, because it has taken too long to recover from the financial crisis, because unemployment especially among the youth – is still high and because globalisation has not lived up to its promises, instead increasing inequality and marginalising parts of society. the measures needed to respond to these issues can only be effective at the european level. not everything is working well in europe and it begs a discussion. italy, as a founding member of the eu and as the third economy of the euro area, needs to be part of it. what do you think of the proposals for reform made by macron? i don ’ t want to comment on what the french president says. he has sparked a debate on the future of europe,

benoit cœure : interview in corriere della sera interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in corriere della sera, conducted by mr danilo taino on 7 march 2019 and published on 11 march 2019. * * * at its meeting on thursday, 7 march, the ecb decided to add to the monetary stimulus already in place. what happened? did the extent of the economic slowdown in the euro area take you by surprise? the slowdown didn ’ t come as a surprise. economic activity was exceptionally strong in 2017, thanks to global economic conditions. we knew that euro area growth would adjust towards its potential rate. the slowdown has been stronger than expected and started sooner, which motivated the decisions we took. but those decisions don ’ t represent a turnaround in our policy ; they have been carefully calibrated to this diagnosis. we are adjusting to the new reality rather than reversing our course ; we don ’ t see signs of a recession at present. the ecb staff projections have been revised. they previously envisaged that growth would be consistently above potential, which would have pushed inflation towards our objective of lower but close to 2 %, whereas they now foresee that actual output will be initially equal to or below potential output, which means it will take longer for inflation to reach 2 %. in the event of external shocks, could the ecb go back to buying bonds on the market? we don ’ t see the need. we are still seeing robust economic growth, although it ’ s less strong than before. it will take longer for inflation to reach our objective, but it will get there. we are reacting to the developments we have seen so far, so we will keep rates at zero for longer, we will continue to reinvest payments from maturing securities in our portfolio, and we will grant banks liquidity at favourable conditions provided that they finance the real economy. if you ’ re asking me about another asset purchase programme, all i will say is that this instrument is now part of our toolbox, but it is not needed now. do you think that european governments are pursuing appropriate fiscal policies under the circumstances? it ’ s difficult for a central banker to give detailed advice on fiscal policy, since fiscal policy is a matter for democratically elected governments. what i can say generally is that the current fiscal stance in the euro area as a whole is slightly expansionary and supports