jean - claude trichet : short address in honour of axel weber speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the deutsche bundesbank festakt, frankfurt am main, 2 may 2011. * * * ladies and gentlemen, ich freue mich sehr, heute bei ihnen zu sein. ich mochte im namen des ezb - rats axel weber fur seinen beitrag uber die vergangenen sieben jahren danken und jens weidmann als neues ratsmitglied begrußen. the eurosystem is a large team, and it is a cohesive one, with a variety of perspectives linked by a common purpose. the eurosystem is also a very successful team. ever since the introduction of the euro we have been fully faithful to our mandate of maintaining price stability over the medium term, defined as medium - term inflation at “ below, but close to 2 % ”. as you know, the average annual inflation rate in the euro area over the past twelve years has been 1. 97 %. this is a remarkable achievement, also considering that the economic environment during those 12 years can hardly be described as benign. the beginnings were marked by a severe oil price shock, which compounded the cost pressure and inflation implications of a secular decline in european productivity trends. due to these adverse supply side adjustments, the bursting of the dot - com bubble brought a downswing with no disinflation. later, over the recovery that followed – axel remembers – there was no time or disposition within the governing council for complacency, as we were all too concerned about insistent signs of excessive credit market euphoria, about – once more – strong pressures on commodity and food prices and – ultimately – about the global imbalances that such a combination of forces were causing worldwide. axel became member of the governing council in 2004, at a time when many voices, including in the executive branches and in the international financial institutions were calling for looser monetary policy. we rightly resisted these calls based on our own assessment of the risks to price stability. back then and throughout the past seven years axel has made influential contributions to the discussions shaping the view of the governing council on the appropriate monetary policy stance. the fact that we have been able to solidly anchor inflation expectations in the euro area at a level consistent with price stability throughout all these phases has bolstered

. stronger coordination will, over time, facilitate the integration of data, which are often requested on the basis of a stovepipe approach and governed by separate legal frameworks. as a result, underlying concepts, definitions and standards can all vary from dataset to dataset, making the combining of data very labour - intensive and subject to all kinds of misinterpretation and overlaps. this see financial stability board, „ feasibility study on approaches to aggregate otc derivatives data “, september 2014, and the consultative report by the cpmi and the board of iosco on „ harmonisation of key otc derivatives data elements ( other than uti and upi ) – first batch “, september 2015. bis central bankers ’ speeches endeavour requires political commitment from all stakeholders. it also requires that authorities collecting data share relevant information with other authorities. i fully acknowledge the existing constraints and barriers that may currently hamper data sharing between authorities, such as data confidentiality and the different mandates of market supervisors, regulators and central banks. however, i think that sharing data among policy - makers and supervisory authorities is essential. understanding interconnectedness in the global financial system and identifying sources of systemic risk were key motivations for establishing the financial stability forum in 1999. 4 sixteen year after the tietmeyer report, and one crisis later, we ’ re still not there. we need to establish a “ circle of trust ” bringing together certain authorities among which data should be shared more easily. 5 authorities have a duty to overcome the obstacles that are currently preventing the sharing of data and endeavour to use harmonised data wherever possible. i am sure the panel will explore these issues in more detail during our discussions. „ while the national authorities, the ifis, the international regulatory bodies and the central bank groupings each gather and assess data on segments or the whole of the international financial system, and regularly monitor aspects of financial system stability, none has the breadth of information or the capacity to formulate a complete assessment of evolving risks. in view of the many sources from which systemic risk can arise, better procedures are needed for systematically pooling and efficiently using the information available to these bodies in their assessment of domestic financial vulnerabilities and global conditions. “ in tietmeyer, h. “ report on international cooperation and coordination in the area of financial market supervision and surveillance ”, bank for international settlements, 11 february 1999. the recommendations for the second phase of the g20 data gaps initiative include recommendation ii. 20 on