health. this, in turn, would worsen the quality of banksa€™ balance sheets. policy support remains essential to prevent balance sheet strains and tightening financing conditions from reinforcing each other. conclusion summing up, the euro area economy is clearly rebounding. however, the speed of the recovery continues to depend on the course of the pandemic and progress with vaccinations. the current rise in inflation is expected to be largely temporary and underlying price pressures will build up only gradually. the slight improvement in the medium - term inflation outlook and the current level of financing conditions allow favourable financing conditions to be maintained with a moderately lower pace of net asset purchases under the pepp. our policy measures, including our revised forward guidance on the key ecb interest rates, are key to helping the economy shift to a sustained recovery and, ultimately, to bringing inflation to our two per cent target. we are now ready to take your questions. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

christine lagarde : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 9 september 2021. * * * good afternoon, the vice - president and i welcome you to our press conference. the rebound phase in the recovery of the euro area economy is increasingly advanced. output is expected to exceed its pre - pandemic level by the end of the year. with more than 70 per cent of european adults fully vaccinated, the economy has largely reopened, allowing consumers to spend more and companies to increase production. while rising immunity to the coronavirus means that the impact of the pandemic is now less severe, the global spread of the delta variant could yet delay the full reopening of the economy. the current increase in inflation is expected to be largely temporary and underlying price pressures are building up only slowly. the inflation outlook in our new staff projections has been revised slightly upwards, but in the medium term inflation is foreseen to remain well below our two per cent target. financing conditions for firms, households and the public sector have remained favourable since our previous quarterly assessment in june. favourable financing conditions are essential for the economy to continue its recovery and to offset the negative impact of the pandemic on inflation. based on a joint assessment of financing conditions and the inflation outlook, the governing council judges that favourable financing conditions can be maintained with a moderately lower pace of net asset purchases under the pandemic emergency purchase programme ( pepp ) than in the previous two quarters. we also confirmed our other measures, namely the level of the key ecb interest rates, our forward guidance on their likely future evolution, our purchases under the asset purchase programme ( app ), our reinvestment policies and our longer - term refinancing operations, as detailed in the press release published at 13 : 45 today. we stand ready to adjust all of our instruments, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation stabilises at our two per cent target over the medium term. i will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing, and then talk about our assessment of financial and monetary conditions. economic activity the economy rebounded by 2. 2 per cent in the second quarter of the year, which was more than expected. it is on track for strong growth in the third quarter. the recovery builds on the