funds in the most liquid components included in m1, which continued to grow at a robust annual rate of more than 12 % in december. the zero annual growth rate of bank loans to the private sector reflects a further increase in the growth in loans to households, while the annual growth in loans to non - financial corporations moved further into negative territory. such divergence remains in line with business cycle regularities. the ongoing contraction in the outstanding amounts of loans to non - financial corporations continues to be accounted for entirely by a strong net redemption of loans with a short maturity. for the sector as a whole, the overall contraction may be due partly to substitution with market - based financing. given the typical lags between turning points in economic activity and those in the demand for bank loans, growth in loans can be expected to remain weak over the months to come. in the meantime, the real cost of external financing for non - financial enterprises has declined further, while the net tightening of credit standards applied by banks has continued to diminish, as indicated by the bank lending survey for the last quarter of 2009. at the same time, banks have continued to reduce the size of their overall balance sheets over the past few months. in this respect, the challenge remains for banks to adjust the size and structure of their balance sheets while ensuring the availability of credit to the non - financial sector. to address this challenge, banks should use the improved funding conditions to strengthen their capital bases further and, where necessary, take full advantage of government support measures for recapitalisation. this is important to facilitate access to finance, especially for those enterprises that do not have recourse to market - based financing. to sum up, the current key ecb interest rates remain appropriate. taking into account all the information and analyses that have become available since our meeting on 14 january 2010, price developments are expected to remain subdued over the policy - relevant horizon. the latest information has also confirmed that euro area economic activity continued to expand around the turn of the year. looking ahead, the governing council expects the euro area economy to grow at a moderate pace in 2010. the recovery process is likely to be uneven and the outlook remains subject to uncertainty. a cross - check of the outcome of the economic analysis with that of the monetary analysis confirms the assessment of low inflationary pressure over the medium term. all in all, we expect price stability to be maintained over the medium term, thereby supporting the purchasing power of euro area households. medium to longer

benoit cœure : interview in the yomiuri shimbun interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in the yomiuri shimbun, conducted by mr tadashi isozumi in japan and published on 20 may 2016. * * * you are attending the g7 finance ministers ’ meeting in sendai. what do you think the most important topic for discussion will be? the group of seven ( g7 ) countries are faced with a common challenge : how can they escape from this low growth, low inflation environment? what is important is that they cooperate and act together. to address future challenges, there needs to be a combination of multiple policies. in order to prevent euro area inflation from being too low for too long, the ecb has brought short - term interest rates to levels close to zero or negative, and is providing forward guidance on the future monetary policy stance. we are also implementing quantitative monetary easing of €80 billion [ about 10 trillion yen ] per month at least until march 2017, primarily by purchasing government bonds but also, starting next month, by purchasing bonds issued by non - financial companies. these actions are mutually reinforcing and in particular negative rates are reinforcing the impact of qe. negative rates are also hurting the financial industry … negative interest rates impose direct costs on some industries : the banking industry, the pension funds industry and the insurance industry. but so far the overall impact on bank revenue has been positive, thanks to higher loan volumes and lower risk provisions. in addition, the money market in europe has been functioning at negative rates for almost two years without any disruptions. the ecb is currently applying a – 0. 4 % interest rate to money deposited by banks on their central bank account. it is in principle possible to cut this rate further, but there is currently no plan to do so. in march the ecb decided to lend money at a fixed rate over four years to banks which increase their loans to households and companies. we have a lending volume benchmark, and the rate will be as low as – 0. 4 % for those banks which outperform their benchmark by a sufficient margin. we are convinced that these credit easing measures are even more important than the negative interest rate, even if they complement each other. what is the impact of your monetary policy on the real economy, so far? this package of monetary easing policies is supporting short - term growth in a visible