11 million since its trough in mid - 2013. at the same time, while investment is supported by favourable financing conditions, it was curbed by the slowdown in the euro area growth momentum and by the elevated uncertainties over the past quarters. looking ahead, the underlying fundamentals for a continued though moderate expansion of the euro area economy remain in place, as foreseen in the december 2019 eurosystem staff projections, which entail annual real gdp increasing by 1. 1 % in 2020, 1. 4 % in 2021 and in 2022. but the risks surrounding the euro area remain tilted to the downside. in particular, the outbreak of the coronavirus and its potential effect on global growth add a new layer of uncertainty. the modest growth performance of the euro area economy is also reflected in subdued inflation 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches dynamics. according to eurostat ’ s flash estimates, headline inflation increased to 1. 4 % in january, up from 1. 3 % in december 2019, reflecting mainly higher energy and food inflation. measures of underlying inflation are subdued, although they have mildly increased from earlier lows. wage growth remains resilient and broad - based, and is expected to shore up inflation in the upcoming months. with the decline in unemployment and the tightening of labour markets, labour cost pressures have strengthened. recent data on negotiated wages continue to signal robust wage growth, which is expected to gradually push up underlying inflation. however, the weaker growth momentum is delaying the pass - through to inflation, as firms appear to be absorbing wage rises in their profit margins rather than passing them on to customers. while survey - based long - term inflation expectations in the euro area have remained anchored at levels of at least 1. 7 %, market - based measures of long - term inflation expectations have stagnated at levels that are not consistent with our medium - term inflation aim. overall, inflation is expected to increase, supported by the ongoing expansion, the solid wage growth and our monetary policy measures. this is broadly reflected in the latest december 2019 eurosystem staff projections, which foresee inflation at 1. 1 % in 2020, 1. 4 % in 2021 and 1. 6 % in 2022. at the same time, annual hicp inflation excluding energy and food is expected to be 1. 3 % in 2020, 1. 4 % in 2021 and 1. 6 % in 2022. the monetary policy stance against a backdrop that remains clouded, the euro area economy

yves mersch : innovation and digitalisation in payment services speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the second annual conference on " fintech and digital innovation : regulation at the european level and beyond ", brussels, 27 february 2018. * * * the payments industry is currently experiencing considerable transformation driven by innovation. i welcome such innovation as it will increase both efficiency and competitiveness, and this will ultimately benefit society. we are seeing the emergence of new players, new channels to access payment services and new means of payment, all of which will significantly change the payments market. these developments are largely driven by digitalisation and the opportunities it brings. but there are also challenges, some of which i will explore here today. opportunities one of the objectives of the revised payment services directive ( psd2 ) is to foster innovation and enhance competition. we are already seeing numerous innovative solutions that make use of the opportunities created by psd2, including services such as payment initiation services ( pis ) or account information services ( ais ). these were initially provided by new entrants to the market or fintech companies, but i understand that some banks are also preparing to provide these services and become third - party providers ( tpps ) themselves. there are opportunities here for all players ; each institution must find the right business model and strategy to be competitive in providing these services, an approach which will benefit their customers. in order to provide pis and ais, a third - party provider will need access to the relevant information from banks, and this will need to be communicated securely, via an adapted customer interface or via a dedicated interface. while access via the former is possible in principle, it would create fragmentation, as providers would have to develop and maintain a huge number of connections to all the different banks they communicate with. the plethora of technical solutions required would be an obstacle for new entrants. i therefore reiterate that only a dedicated and standardised technical interface – an application programming interface, or api – constitutes an efficient access solution that serves the needs of an integrated european payments market. i also believe that there should only be one – or at most a few – technical api specifications so that competition takes place at the service level and not at the technical specification level. we need to ensure that innovative services are built on harmonised and standardised technical foundations so that they can be made available across europe. let me add some more general