2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches macroeconomic imbalance procedure over time and across countries remains essential to increase the resilience of the euro area economy. strengthening economic and monetary union remains a priority. the governing council welcomes the ongoing discussions on completing the banking union and the capital markets union, and on further enhancing the institutional architecture of our economic and monetary union. we are now at your disposal for questions. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr vitor constancio, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 14 december 2017. * * * introductory statement ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council, which was also attended by the president of the eurogroup, mr dijsselbloem, and by the commission vice - president, mr dombrovskis. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we continue to expect them to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases. regarding non - standard monetary policy measures, we confirm that from january 2018 we intend to continue to make net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme ( app ), at a monthly pace of €30 billion, until the end of september 2018, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the governing council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. if the outlook becomes less favourable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, we stand ready to increase the app in terms of size and / or duration. the eurosystem will reinvest the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the app for an extended period of time after the end of its net asset purchases, and in any case for as long as necessary. this will contribute both to favourable liquidity conditions and to an appropriate monetary policy stance. our monetary policy decisions have preserved the very favourable financing conditions that are still needed for a sustained return of inflation rates towards levels that are below, but close to, 2 %. the incoming information, including our new staff projections, indicates a strong pace of economic expansion and a significant improvement in the growth outlook. the strong cyclical momentum and the significant reduction of economic slack give grounds for greater confidence that inflation will converge towards our inflation aim. at the same time, domestic price pressures remain muted overall and have yet to show convincing signs of a sustained upward trend. an ample degree of monetary stimulus therefore remains necessary for underlying inflation pressures to continue to build up and support headline inflation developments over the medium term. this continued monetary