goals of maximum employment and price stability. once again, thank you for this evening ’ s award. 1 1 board of governors of the federal reserve system, federal reserve issues fomc statement, march 3, 2020. 2 2 board of governors of the federal reserve system, statement regarding monetary policy implementation, october 11, 2019 ; federal reserve bank of new york, statement regarding treasury bill purchases and repurchase operations, october 11, 2019. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

policy which is aimed at providing a stable anchor for economic agents. indeed, the best contribution of monetary policy to economic growth is when inflation and inflation expectations are firmly anchored at price stability. one way of measuring our success in providing this long - term anchor is to study long - term market expectations for inflation. taken all measures together, from financial markets or from survey data, the information indicates that we have been successful in stabilising inflation expectations at below 2 %. but these measures also indicate that we need to remain vigilant as regards any upside risks to price stability over the medium term. the understanding of how a central bank reacts to data and indicators is crucial for the anchoring of inflation expectations and for the credibility of monetary policy. the overall success of the ecb ’ s monetary policy also reflects, in my view, a success in terms of transparency and communication. as a public institution providing a public good with full independence, we are responsible and accountable to the people of europe. consequently, a significant part of our job is devoted to explaining and discussing our actions and our goals to the public. from the start, the governing council has decided to communicate its assessment of the economic situation and of the risks to price stability in a new and exceptionally transparent fashion. monetary policy decisions are explained at the press conference which takes place immediately after the first governing council meeting of the month ; the ecb was the first major central bank to embark on such concept of transparency, and it was then followed by other important central banks. further explanations of our policy are presented in the ecb ’ s monthly bulletin, in speeches given by members of the governing council and in the testimonies of the president before the european parliament. challenges let me now turn to two of the most important challenges we are currently facing and which need to be addressed in order to fully reap the benefits of the euro, namely raising potential economic growth and the enlargement of the euro area. let me start with the first challenge i want to discuss today, namely the need to raise economic growth in a sustainable manner. we all know that the growth performance of a number of euro area countries has been disappointing during the past years, both in a historical perspective and compared with other economies. this is also true since the start of the euro, despite the improved financing conditions i mentioned earlier. this reflects both international and domestic factors : the world economy is transforming rapidly, external competition has become stronger, knowledge is easily transferable and the ability to