benoit cœure : interview with europe 1 interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, and europe 1, conducted by mr patrick cohen on 15 june 2018 and broadcast on 15 june 2018. * * * for three years the ecb has been purchasing huge amounts of public and private debt. almost €2. 5 trillion has been injected into the euro area economy. yesterday, the ecb announced that all this would come to a stop at the end of the year. does that mean the crisis is over? indeed, we plan to stop these purchases after december. why? for two reasons. first, europe is seeing strong growth. at the beginning of the year this growth slowed a little, but we feel that it remains robust and will bounce back and continue. and second, inflation is returning towards 2 %, which is the ultimate goal of everything we do. but the policy was working, and now you ’ re stopping it? we ’ re stopping it precisely because it has worked. but it ’ s the asset purchases that we ’ re stopping. €2. 5 trillion is not an insignificant amount, and our asset purchases have been very effective. however, we ’ re going to keep interest rates very low, at their current levels, in other words close to zero, at least through the summer of 2019. so we ’ ll be sticking with a monetary policy that will support the economy for a very long time. you haven ’ t raised interest rates since 2011, and they remain very low. so they won ’ t rise before the summer of 2019 at the earliest? something else could happen, but we don ’ t anticipate raising rates before the summer of 2019, as you say, because the economy still needs some support. but if growth picks up, could interest rates for individuals and businesses increase? long - term interest rates for individuals and businesses are naturally increasing because global growth is picking up and because us interest rates are rising. so yes, people have to be prepared. and, inevitably, government borrowing rates will also increase, and so governments will also have to be prepared. you say that people will inevitably have to be prepared. does that include our personal loans, our mortgages, for example? yes, but as i said, not right away – short - term rates will remain very low, close to zero, for a very long time, and at least until the middle of 2019. yesterday the banque de france

that? because he was asked about it. it was a press conference, so he was answering questions. but it ’ s true, we don ’ t think there ’ s any point in discussing the future of the euro or the future of any particular country in the euro area. the euro is a political project and every time the european heads of state have faced the question of whether a country should stay in the euro, they have always answered that the euro should remain as it is. and the people of europe support the euro. more than 70 % of europeans are in favour of the euro. benoit cœure, you are french. mario draghi has to leave his position next autumn. are you a candidate to replace him? that question isn ’ t at all relevant at the moment. are you interested in the job? it ’ s for october 2019 and it will be decided a priori at the european council meeting in june 2019. are you interested in the job? it ’ s not something i ’ m concerning myself with at all at the moment. so, you ’ re not interested? i have a full - time job. that ’ s not the kind of question i ask myself, given that it ’ s scheduled for october 2019. if you were to be offered the position, would you accept? let ’ s come back to that again in six months, or a year. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches