. second, redemptions of bonds with a relatively high carbon impact. and third, we see that issuers of the bonds we hold are actively working to reduce their carbon footprint, with benefits for society at large. 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches looking beyond 2024, the governing council is committed to considering ways to ensure the further decarbonisation of our corporate portfolios on a path that supports the paris agreement objectives, without prejudice to our price stability objective. we will continue to review our climate actions to ensure that they remain fit for purpose, focusing on the areas where the risks are greatest and our work contributes the most. conclusion let me now conclude. as we enter a new era of heightened geopolitical tensions and an unfolding climate crisis, we need to step up our efforts to make our economies more resilient. progress on the green transition, including to accelerate europe's energy independence, is essential as it will reduce the likelihood of higher and more volatile energy prices. deepening the capital markets union, reaching an agreement on a sound fiscal framework and addressing regulatory barriers are equally crucial to foster investment and speed up the development of renewables. the ecb will play its part, first and foremost by ensuring that inflation returns to our 2 % medium - term target. this is not the time to start declaring victory. we need to remain attentive to the different forces affecting inflation and firmly focused on our mandate of price stability. 1 base effects are the extent to which the change from one month to the next in the year - on - year rate of inflation can be explained by the " dropping out " from the price index of an atypical month - on - month change 12 months earlier. 2 hansen, j. e. et al. ( 2023 ), " global warming in the pipeline ", oxford open climate change, vol. 3, no 1, november. 3 for more information, see " climate change and the ecb " on the ecb's website. 4 for more information, see " climate change - related indicators " on the ecb's website. 5 ecb ( 2023 ), climate - related financial disclosures of the eurosystem's corporate sector holdings for monetary policy purposes, march. 4 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches

remain strong for the rest of the year. this contrasts with inflation developments in the united states – the first topic chosen for today's hearing – where food inflation has been more contained, while core inflation picked up faster after the pandemic. inflation excluding energy and food has continued to moderate. it fell to 4. 2 % in october owing to declines in both goods and services inflation. most other measures of underlying inflation have also come down. at the same time, the ecb's indicator of domestic inflation – which excludes items with a high import content – has not come down by much, reflecting the fact that inflation is now driven more by domestic sources than by external sources. wage pressures, meanwhile, remain strong. our current assessment is that this mainly reflects " catch - up " effects related to past inflation rather than a self - fulfilling dynamic. and we expect wages to continue to be a key factor driving domestic inflation. at the same time, the contribution of profits – which accounted for much of the strong domestic price pressures seen recently – is now weakening. looking ahead, we expect the weakening of inflationary pressures to continue, even though headline inflation may rise again slightly in the coming months, mainly owing to some base effects. however, the medium - term outlook for inflation remains surrounded by considerable uncertainty. the ecb's monetary policy turning to monetary policy, we remain determined to ensure the timely return of inflation to our 2 % medium - term target. in october we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged, and we expect that maintaining interest rates at current levels for a sufficiently long duration will make a substantial contribution to restoring price stability. our future decisions will ensure that policy rates are set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary. the appropriate level and duration of restriction will continue to be determined in a data - dependent manner, assessing the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. the governing council will reassess its monetary policy stance in mid - december, informed by new data and updated projections, including for 2026. climate change considerations in monetary policy let me now turn to the other topic you have selected for today's hearing – climate change in monetary policy implementation. climate - related disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe. this year's catastrophic floods in slovenia, italy, greece and france are a stark reminder of this. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches at the same time, the warming of our