, 1. pre - crisis growth paths are unlikely to be reached again. 2. risk premia will stay elevated, relative to pre - crisis levels. 3. more market players in financial markets will exit as their business models will have become unsustainable. 4. we are likely to experience more volatility in macroeconomic variables than in the pre - crisis period. 5. central banks are likely to show a stronger tendency of “ leaning against the wind ” if unsustainable asset price developments emerge. 6. macro - prudential risks will be monitored more closely, as exemplified by the establishment of the esrb. ecb mandate the mandate of the ecb to deliver price stability is clear and will remain unchanged. it is anchored in the maastricht treaty. i am glad that we have this single mandate instead of a dual mandate or even more objectives. mandates with several goals may overburden monetary policy, given that a central bank has only one instrument : the short - term interest rate. following tinbergen and theil, it has been recognised that a central bank endowed with one policy instrument can only pursue one independent goal. the unambiguous mandate to deliver price stability is the most prominent element of a set of interrelated principles of sound monetary policy. further important and widely accepted principles for the conduct of sound monetary policy are : 1. credible commitment to the mandate of price stability this principle is the basis for securely anchoring longer - term inflation expectations consistent with price stability. to achieve it, the central bank must always stand ready – and be perceived as standing ready – to take all necessary actions to deliver on its mandate. the credibility of this commitment requires the central bank to operate under the appropriate institutional set - up, most importantly political independence, and that it develops a track record which signals its willingness and capacity to deliver price stability. 2. independence from political influence the importance of this principle has been established in a large body of theoretical and empirical literature. it is laid down in the maastricht treaty and has proven elementary during the crisis. central bank independence is also fully borne out by the strict prohibition of monetary financing. 3. medium - term orientation the medium term orientation is based on the well - established fact that long and variable lags characterise the transmission of monetary policy decisions. monetary policy cannot be used to dampen short - term effects on price developments, and it should avoid fine tuning of demand conditions. 4. transparency and

context of a severely impaired interbank market was capable to alleviate banks ’ concerns about access to liquidity and thereby to support the flow of credit to households and corporations and ensure the maintenance of price stability. all our non - standard measures – enhanced credit support and securities market programme – were exceptional responses to extraordinary circumstances and as such temporary in nature. specifically, all measures taken during the period of acute financial market tensions are fully in line with our mandate. overall, our non - standard measures have proved effective. this contradicts academic literature on the “ irrelevance of monetary policy operations ”. however : these measures represent strong medicine. we therefore need to constantly assess whether or not it is still warranted. the ecb has a strategy in place to phase out the liquidity support measures. the process of phasing out started in december 2009 : we suspended liquidity provision at maturities of 6 - month and 1 - year ; the covered bond purchase by now the following liquidity support measures have remained in place : unlimited liquidity provision in our refinancing operations at a fixed interest rate and the smp. how will the phasing out process proceed? our decisions will be guided by gradualism and steadiness and will be consistent with improvements in financial market conditions and real activity. in my view, conditions in both money and financial markets have improved significantly over recent months, notwithstanding the most recent tensions in some segments of the european sovereign debt market. since summer, the amount of liquidity demanded in ecb refinancing operations has declined by about one third ( not taking into account the cbpp : from eur 881 bn on 30 june this year to eur 510 bn today ). as a consequence, excess liquidity has dropped by about 60 % ( from eur 220 bn on 30 june to eur 87 bn ). this process has been driven by receding demand on the part of financial market participants. furthermore, we have experienced a re - activation of the interbank money market : the eonia volume has nearly doubled since summer ( from eur 26. 3 bn on 30 june to eur 45. 7 bn yesterday ). i would take this development as a positive sign that banks trust each other more. nevertheless, the question remains whether there is something that has changed in interbank money markets which would lead to lower activity at present and in the future – temporarily or permanently. furthermore, to what extent does the fixed - rate full all