judged that our monetary policy measures had to be stepped up in view of our price stability mandate. therefore, as of march 2015 we expanded our asset purchase programme ( limited until then to covered bonds ) to public sector securities. these asset purchases, together with the measures taken since june 2014, have proved very effective by activating a broad range of channels to support growth and inflation in the euro area. bis central bankers ’ speeches first, they have contributed to a tangible, broad - based easing of market funding conditions, transmitting the stimulus to the euro area economy at large. 1 second, through improving borrowing conditions for firms and households in the euro area, these measures have also promoted a recovery in lending that went back to positive growth in the second half of 2014, supporting expenditure on investment and consumption. 2 without these measures, the euro area would have been in outright deflation last year and prices would have fallen at an even faster rate this year. growth would have been significantly lower. 3 towards the end of 2015, significant risks to the inflation outlook started to materialise. headline inflation entered negative territory in september ( – 0. 1 % ), slightly recovered in december ( 0. 2 % ) and january 2016 ( 0. 3 % ) before turning negative again in february ( – 0. 2 % ). this was partly due to a substantial decline in crude oil prices by 48 % in euro terms from may 2015 to january 2016. the decline in oil prices reflected continued oversupply, weakening oil demand and the opec countries not cutting production targets. in particular, around half of the decline in headline inflation from january to february reflects that the already negative annual energy inflation turned even more negative. to counteract the risks to our price stability objective, we first recalibrated our policy stance last december and then unveiled another comprehensive set of measures at our last monetary policy meeting in march 2016. in discussing our recent monetary policy measures, it is essential to consider the global environment in which they were taken. this environment was characterised by subdued growth, historically weak trade developments and low inflationary pressures reflecting sharp falls in energy prices. the more recent developments have been affected in particular by the outlook for emerging markets contributing to global financial market volatility in the second half of 2015 and again in february this year. in this respect, these developments are analysed in the box in the annual report entitled “ financial stress in emerging market economies ” in order to understand their impact on the euro area economy. this is

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : high - level panel : improving the efficiency and integration of post - trading arrangements in europe speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the joint ecb / european commission conference “ the safety and efficiency of post - trading arrangements in europe ”, frankfurt am main, 21 - 22 april 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to open the high level panel on improving the efficiency and integration of post - trading arrangements in europe and to share with you our visions for a more integrated financial post trading market. queen victoria once said : “ change? why do we need change? [ things are quite bad enough as they are ] ”. well, a few years ago the post trading community was facing the question whether to follow queen victoria and not to change the post trading environment. so i am delighted when i look at today ’ s post trading environment to see a dynamic change environment with a lot of activity and initiative. an important question – that we will address in this panel – is how we can further shape and contribute to the future post trading environment. as members of the panel, we have the pleasure of welcoming mr eddy wymeersch, chairman of the european committee of securities regulators ( cesr ), ms pervenche beres, member of the european parliament and chairperson of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament and mr jeffrey tessler, chief executive officer of clearstream international. i am especially happy to open this panel because the post - trading segment of the financial market plays a particularly important role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of allocating and attracting funds within a globalised financial market. to put this into perspective, the securities trading volumes for the eu stood at approximately €150 trillion in 2006, as compared with €196 trillion in the united states and €72 trillion in japan, and keeping in mind at the same time that the settlement volumes could be as much as three times as high. in the light of these significant and increasing volumes, it is evident that today ’ s challenges are best tackled by involving market participants in the definition of concerted efforts to foster innovative and operative actions to enhance the safeguarding and integration of the currently too fragmented european post - trading market. the eurosystem takes its responsibility and is accountable for acting as a market operator, facilitator and catalyst for new initiatives as part of the