. third, it is not surprising that we have seen the most significant corrections in markets which had registered substantial capital gains in recent months and weeks. fourth, the ecb, with all other central banks, will continue to monitor the situation very closely : smooth and orderly changes are always preferable to sharp and abrupt corrections, which are never welcome. there is a strong sense that political pressure to limit ecb independence is rising in some countries ( especially france ). does this worry you or is it just an empty threat? a majority of the people of europe says that it is good that the central bank is independent to ensure price stability. the percentage in france is exactly the same as in the euro area as a whole, at 73 % three citizens out of four! we have been made independent by the will of the people. all our democracies had multi - national and multi - party consensus to give the ecb independence. we are the child of a multi - party consensus for independence, which is again fully vindicated by the people of europe. so i am not worried. are you disappointed that most of the attacks are coming from your home country, france? in france, the decision to make the banque de france independent was particularly solemn because it required a change of the constitution of the fifth republic – the constitution of general de gaulle – by a majority of three - fifths in both chambers of the parliament. after this, the people of france voted in favour of central bank independence as enshrined in the maastricht treaty. these critics often point to the fact that the federal reserve has a mandate partly for growth, and the ecb does not. is there any room for some element of this to be placed in the ecb mandate? the fact that our primary mandate is to ensure price stability has been approved by all the democracies of europe and everybody expects us to respect the will expressed solemnly by all our democracies. but i will add that it is the view of all central banks in the world that price stability is a necessary condition for sustainable growth and job creation. that is the reason why so many countries in the industrial world and in the emerging economies have adopted a concept of direct inflation targeting. the overwhelming majority of central banks in the world are given a single mandate to ensure price stability. it is the case in london, in stockholm, in ottawa, in mexico city, in brasilia as well as in frankfurt. my us counterparts, ben

the u. s. and in the u. k. were instrumental in decreasing yields by several tens of basis points, with spillover effects on other asset prices, including mortgage rates and exchange rates. in turn, gdp growth and inflation rates also appear to have been significantly affected. after all, even if they have to use new instruments, central banks cannot avoid their responsibility in ensuring price stability, as long as inflation continues to be determined by monetary policy. broad - based asset - purchases would allow the ecb to continue pursuing its mandate even under more adverse circumstances. it is however important that other policies also play their part. an extreme adverse scenario that has recently appeared in the public debate is that of a “ secular stagnation ”. 8 this is effectively a situation where the “ natural ” long run growth rate of the economy falls significantly and permanently, e. g. because of a fall in the growth rate of population or because of a fall in technological progress, or both. this scenario is only still a possibility, but it is illustrative of a broader need for structural policies to again unleash the growth potential of our economies. public spending should be redirected towards public investment in infrastructures and education. international trade and labour mobility should be fostered. these are the best recipes to ensure that the secular stagnation will remain a purely academic hypothesis. conclusions today, i have focused on the low inflation challenges, but let me conclude with a quick reminder that we remain watchful of financial market developments. a necessary condition to ensure the effectiveness of our intended monetary policy stance is to alleviate credit supply constraints. this explains why new targeted ltros are part of the package of measures decided by the governing council in june. see e. g. krugman, p ( 2013 ) “ secular stagnation, coalmines, bubbles, and larry summers ” http : / / krugman. blogs. nytimes. com ; krugman, p. ( 2014 ) “ inflation targets reconsidered ”, presented at ecb forum on central banking, sintra ; summers, l. ( 2013 ) “ remarks at imf fourteenth annual research conference in honor of stanley fischer ’ ’ ; eggertsson, g. and mehrotra, n. ( 2014 ) “ a model of secular stagnation ”, mimeo. bis central bankers ’ speeches to sum up, the main challenge monetary policy faces in the euro area today is to ave