central bankers'speeches policies in euro area countries needs to be substantially stepped up to boost euro area productivity and growth potential, reduce structural unemployment and increase resilience. the 2019 country - specific recommendations should serve as the relevant signpost. regarding fiscal policies, the euro area fiscal stance is expected to remain mildly expansionary in 2020, thus providing support to economic activity. in view of the weakened economic outlook, the governing council welcomes the eurogroup ’ s call for differentiated fiscal responses and its readiness to coordinate. governments with fiscal space should be ready to act in an effective and timely manner. in countries where public debt is high, governments need to pursue prudent policies and meet structural balance targets, which will create the conditions for automatic stabilisers to operate freely. all countries should intensify their efforts to achieve a more growthfriendly composition of public finances. likewise, the transparent and consistent implementation of the european union ’ s fiscal and economic governance framework over time and across countries remains essential to bolster the resilience of the euro area economy. improving the functioning of economic and monetary union remains a priority. the governing council welcomes the ongoing work and urges further specific and decisive steps to complete the banking union and the capital markets union. we are now at your disposal for 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, 12 december 2019. * * * ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our press conference. today is the first time that i have had the privilege and pleasure of chairing the monetary policy meeting of the governing council of the ecb. i am delighted to proceed now with reporting on the outcome of our meeting, together with the vice - president. the governing council meeting was also attended by the commission executive vice - president, mr dombrovskis. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we expect them to remain at their present or lower levels until we have seen the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2 % within our projection horizon, and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics. on 1 november we restarted net purchases under our asset purchase programme ( app ) at a monthly pace of €20 billion. we expect them to run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of our policy rates, and to end shortly before we start raising the key ecb interest rates. we also intend to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the app for an extended period of time past the date when we start raising the key ecb interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. the incoming data since the last governing council meeting in late october point to continued muted inflation pressures and weak euro area growth dynamics, although there are some initial signs of stabilisation in the growth slowdown and of a mild increase in underlying inflation in line with previous expectations. ongoing employment growth and increasing wages continue to underpin the resilience of the euro area economy. the comprehensive package of policy measures that the governing council decided in september provides substantial monetary stimulus, which ensures favourable financing conditions for all sectors of the economy. in particular, easier borrowing conditions for firms and households are underpinning consumer spending and business investment. this will support the euro area expansion, the ongoing build - up of domestic price pressures and, thus, the robust convergence of inflation to our medium - term aim. in the light of the