one driven by social distancing in high - contact sectors – tends to increase inequality. at the peak of the crisis, 40 % of income for the poorest europeans was coming from sectors that were heavily affected by covid - 19, compared with 16 % for the richest. according to one estimate, two months of lockdown followed by six months with the economy operating at 80 % capacity could increase the gini coefficient by almost 14 % in europe3. and this feeds back into the recovery, since lower income households have a higher propensity to consume. in this context, it is clear that both fiscal support and monetary policy support have to remain in place for as long as necessary and “ cliff effects ” must be avoided. otherwise, we risk hysteresis in the labour market, an unnecessary loss of viable businesses and greater inequality. and the recovery in the euro area remains uncertain, uneven and incomplete, while the new coronavirusrelated restrictions currently being introduced across europe will add to uncertainty for firms and households. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches fiscal authorities are already taking action. all of the “ big four ” euro area countries have extended their short - time work schemes into next year. our analysis finds that, at the peak of the crisis, such schemes halved the share of firms under liquidity stress and reduced “ employment at risk ” by almost two - thirds4. this week governments also announced their planned fiscal measures for 2021, which suggest that member states plan to provide sizeable fiscal support to their economies next year. all the conditions are in place for monetary policy and fiscal policy to continue working together. the gdp - weighted sovereign yield curve in the euro area is in negative territory for maturities up to ten years. and our forward guidance on our asset purchase programmes and interest rates provides clarity for governments on the future path of interest rates. but precisely because the covid - 19 recession has affected services so deeply, it will also herald structural change. there is always some rotation of businesses during downturns, but the pandemic is different : it is accelerating the pre - existing spread of digitalisation in ways that look set to permanently reshape our economies and our societies. nearly 50 % of europeans say they have worked from home during the pandemic and of those only 18 % are in favour of a full return to the office5. e - commerce increased by almost one fifth in terms of volume of sales between february and august 2020 and online payments

##b. monetary policy is supporting firms and households by keeping interest rates exceptionally low, even negative, and ensuring that banks are able to continue lending to the economy. the measures we have just taken seek to ensure that lending to the real economy does not contract, and, if possible, increases. banks can now obtain €3, 000 billion of funding from the ecb at the most favourable conditions there have ever been. we expect these measures to help those sectors worst affected by the crisis, in particular the small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) that play such a key role in the italian economy. finally, we shouldn ’ t forget that the ecb ’ s banking supervision arm, which also involves the national authorities, has taken action in recent days to ensure that the crisis does not prevent banks from supporting the economy. banks will now make use of the scope this gives them to support firms and households, not to increase salaries or dividends. can you explain what you decided last thursday, because the markets didn ’ t really 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches understand it at first. the italian stock market fell by 17 % … last thursday we reduced the cost of funding for banks, provided that they, in turn, pass on that funding to firms and households – effectively, we further reduced the cost of lending to the economy. we took measures aimed at easing the eligibility criteria for the assets used by banks as collateral in our refinancing operations. we have not, so far, reduced the interest rate on the deposit facility ( the rate which is currently relevant for monetary policy, and which is below zero ) ; however, further cuts would be possible if warranted by the economic outlook. and on government bonds? we increased our asset purchase programme by €120 billion, which will allow us to address tensions in the government bond markets. in the course of this year, we will make net purchases totalling €360 billion. if necessary, this programme could be expanded again. the turbulence seen in the italian government bond market in recent days is undesirable and needs to be allayed. large, unwarranted increases in spreads, caused by the grave health crisis – which risk fragmenting the euro area government bond market and undermining the transmission of monetary policy – will be addressed decisively. the package of measures that we adopted this week allows us to act flexibly in terms of both the pace and the composition of our asset purchases, meaning that we have