. 5 percentage point more inflation. this is difficult to forecast. in america, government bond purchases were unquestionably successful. the question is how that can be transferred to a monetary union like ours. we are discussing exactly that. how can you ensure success in europe when there are no common bonds for the euro area that you could buy? this is not a trivial difficulty, but there are definitely solutions to it. the ecb has a mandate to conduct monetary policy for a monetary union with 19 different countries. that makes some things more complicated, but it ’ s no justification for doing nothing at all. would it really be conceivable that the ecb buys bonds not of all 19 countries, but of just those with the best ratings? we have to weigh this up. on the one hand, the ecb has to limit the risks it takes onto its balance sheet. on the other hand, the bond purchases have to be spread broadly enough to really have an effect on prices and economic development. as far as the financial markets are concerned, the ecb decided to buy government bonds some time ago, when it announced its intention in december to increase its balance sheet to a maximum of €3 trillion. was that a good idea? we had already said before that we expected such a development, and i don ’ t see a big difference between an expectation and an intention. so why did you vote against it? the council has decided not to make any details on the votes public, and i will adhere to that. but there was no fundamental disagreement on the matter – at most differing views on individual formulations. how optimistic are you that the discussion will be concluded by 22 january? discussions are well advanced. last week, we discussed lots of technical details. in any case, we will be able to take a decision on 22 january. which does not mean that we have, in fact, already reached a decision. there has been struggle over government bond purchases for months. is this dispute a problem for the credibility of the governing council? not at all. it is normal that there are different opinions in a council with 25 members – otherwise, we wouldn ’ t need the body, we could decide everything in the executive board, which has six members. but even in the executive board, there are widely divergent opinions on bond purchases. if one wanted to avoid that, one person would be able to decide everything on his or her own. but there is good reason why that is

to. the eu commission should thus not give italy, france and belgium more time to reduce their high budget deficits? that is matter to be decided by the eu commission. the current situation, however, is not exactly optimal in this respect. the eu commission has rightly censured countries like italy, france and belgium because they have not met their deficit targets. it has, however, not taken any further measures. that increases uncertainty because nobody knows whether the rules are currently being applied in full or not. the eu commission should therefore come to an unequivocal decision that ensures the credibility of the stability and growth pact as soon as possible. that does not fall within the mandate of the ecb. our task is to ensure price stability. this very aim is now thought by economists to be at risk – in december the price level even fell. is that already deflation? the ecb ’ s definition of it seems so far to have been vague. i would speak of deflation when both prices and output are falling and the problem is getting worse and worse – because people don ’ t invest or consume when they are waiting for prices to fall further. so far, that hasn ’ t been the case. however, inflation rates throughout europe are extremely low and far removed from 2 %, from what central bankers define as price stability. we cannot ignore that. but prices have recently fallen simply because oil has become so much cheaper. why is the ecb allowing that to put it under pressure to act? you can ’ t influence short - term fluctuations in the oil price anyway. a falling oil price is generally a one - off shock, but, first, this time it ’ s unusually large. second, inflation was too low even beforehand, and inflation expectations are moving further and further away from 2 %, which we aim in our monetary policy to achieve over the medium term. bis central bankers ’ speeches so you would prefer to ignore the fall in the oil price as you ’ ve done in the past – but you can ’ t afford to at the moment? we do indeed want to screen out short - term effects, but it ’ s becoming more and more difficult to keep to this. in the current environment, the continuous decline in oil prices increases the danger that people will lose confidence in our inflation target. but will the ecb be able to achieve much in any case? even a €1, 000 billion government bond programme is forecast to create only 0. 1 to 0