the largest inflation surge on record in the euro area. we raised our key policy rates by a cumulative 450 basis points between july 2022 and september 2023 and have kept them at the current restrictive levels since then. at our recent april monetary policy meeting, we considered that the current level of key ecb interest rates is contributing substantially to the ongoing disinflation process. we remain determined to ensure that inflation returns to our 2 % medium - term target in a timely manner. our future decisions will ensure that our policy rates will stay sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary. if our updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission were to further increase our confidence that inflation is converging to our target in a sustained manner, we will dial back the level of monetary policy restriction. in any event, we will continue to follow a data - dependent and meeting - by - meeting approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction, and we are not pre - committing to a particular rate path. thank you for your attention. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

luis de guindos : monetary policy and financial stability in the euro area introductory remarks by mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, at a euro 50 group meeting, london, 29 april 2024. * * * inflation as regards inflation in the euro area, we have come a long way, but there is still work to be done. nevertheless, we are heading in the right direction. after peaking at more than 10 % in october 2022, headline inflation fell to 2. 4 % in march this year. core inflation has also come down substantially from its peak 12 months ago of almost 6 %. in march 2024 it stood below 3 % for the first time in two years. in addition, most measures of underlying inflation declined further in february, confirming the picture of gradually diminishing price pressures. the impact of previous adverse supply shocks continues to fade and tight monetary policy is weighing on demand. mirroring the disconnect between manufacturing and services activity, goods and services inflation have diverged. goods inflation dropped to 1. 1 % in march after almost reaching 7 % in early 2023. services inflation has also eased substantially from its peak level of close to 6 % in july 2023. however, its decline has stalled since the second half of last year and it has remained at 4 % for the last five months of available data. although inflation dynamics are broadly heading in the right direction, our work is not yet done. we expect inflation to fluctuate around current levels in the coming months. in particular, the swings in energy prices during 2023 and the associated base effects in calculating annual comparisons mechanically imply a bumpy path in the monthly readings for inflation rates over the remainder of 2024. in addition, the withdrawal of various temporary fiscal support measures will affect prices in an uneven manner. looking through these shorter - term fluctuations, a key factor we need to monitor is whether underlying inflation continues to ease. this applies in particular to our measure of domestic price pressures, which reflects the interplay between wages, productivity growth and profit margins. wage growth based on national accounts data is showing signs of easing, potentially at a faster pace than we previously expected. but high employment growth, coupled with subdued output growth, continues to weigh on labour productivity. we have not seen improvements in productivity per employee or per hour worked. as a result, unit labour costs are still increasing. looking ahead, we expect productivity to recover as activity strengthens. turning to