to growth expectations, developments in inflation expectations are extremely important ( chart 7 ). if households or firms expect that prices will decline in the future, their incentives to postpone consumption or investment will increase and a virtuous cycle from however, it should be noted that, as for the forecasts made by medium - sized firms and smes regarding the real economic growth rate over the next three years, the rate was 0. 7 percent for fiscal 2020, declining slightly from 0. 8 percent for fiscal 2019. income to spending will not operate. various indicators for inflation expectations temporarily weakened somewhat after the outbreak of covid - 19, partly due to a significant decline in crude oil prices, but they recently have moved out of that phase, being more or less unchanged. some indicators even show a pick - up, partly reflecting the effects of the recent rise in international commodity prices. that said, further recovery in growth and inflation expectations of firms and households is necessary to achieve the price stability target of 2 percent. the bank will closely examine whether this recovery can intensify the virtuous cycle in the overall economy. d. price developments let me touch on price developments before moving on to the next topic ( chart 9 ). the rebasing of the consumer price index ( cpi ), which is conducted every five years, took place last month, and the year - on - year rates of change since this spring were revised downward by about 0. 7 percentage points. this is mainly because a reduction in mobile phone charges made a further negative contribution with the rebasing. 7 temporary factors such as a change in price plans for mobile phone charges and large fluctuations in energy prices should be excluded to capture actual developments in prices. when excluding these factors, the rebased cpi has been marginally positive. this is another example of difficulties in interpreting economic indicators, which i mentioned at the outset, and thus it is necessary to carefully examine relevant data, including the underlying factors behind developments in price indicators. given the rebasing, the year - on - year rates of change in the cpi ( all items less fresh food ) were revised downward from minus 0. 4 percent to minus 0. 5 percent for january through march 2021 and from 0. 1 percent to minus 0. 6 percent for april through june. the negative contribution of mobile phone charges to the rates of change in the cpi for april through june expanded from about minus 0. 5 percentage points to about minus 1. 1 percentage points. this

spite of the efforts undertaken by the european commission and the national authorities, as well as by other players, the use of the euro is currently still limited. if the use of the euro as a unit of account or for non - cash payments were more wide - spread among the public, the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins on 1 january 2002 would be seen as far less inconvenient. the public sometimes tends to reduce the complex activity of any one institution to a very simple concept. the ecb's tasks are really complex, involving monetary policy decisions, statistics, monetary policy operations, payment systems, legal issues, etc. all these activities are often relatively unknown to the man in the street. he or she will, in one year's time, tend to identify the ecb with the single image of the euro banknotes. the euro banknotes will be seen as the face of the ecb. the euro, our currency, and the ecb, our central bank, will be identified by the public with these banknotes. therefore, next year is also of paramount importance for the public image of the ecb as an organisation. i am fully aware of the fact that representatives of professional parties involved in the euro cash changeover are attending this conference. allow me to conclude by thanking you all for your great efforts, your understanding and your co - operation in making this remarkable historical moment happen. let me now give the floor to raymond van buuren.