it makes the rich richer! governments have to take care of redistributive effects. how important is confidence in the private sector? it is extremely important. the biggest risk now is that after years of lower inflation expectations and lower real growth there is a risk of an entrenched pessimism that might become self - fulfilling, delaying expenditure and investment, which in turn leads to underemployment and lower potential growth. what would you expect the main impact of qe to be in portugal? the portfolio rebalancing effect will be quite significant. there will also be a steep drop in the lending rates that banks apply to households and firms in portugal. we saw this happening even before the start of the programme. there is a discussion going on about the fiscal impacts of the operation in portugal, both as a result of lower interest rates in the market and owing to the fact that the interest paid to the central bank will be given back in part to the government. and this depends a lot on how much you buy. yes, but you have to look to all of the consequences for the economy, not only the consequences for the interest rates. the impact on debt is just part of it. you have decided that around 90 % of the risk in sovereign bonds will be national, and 10 % will stay with the eurosystem. however, profits are supposed to be shared. to be precise, considering all the additional purchases, sovereign and european institutions bonds around 20 % of the risk will be shared, and 80 % will be borne by the national central banks. the legal acts have not yet been published. several options were considered, but for the part of the overall portfolio that is not shared, the governing council intention is to have the same approach applied to both the profits and the losses. what is your evaluation of the current economic situation in portugal? we have seen an improvement almost everywhere, including portugal, which will also benefit from the reforms undertaken, the fall in the oil price and better financial conditions. the question mark hangs over what we call “ reform fatigue ”, whereby, for example, some reforms have been suspended in recent months. there is a risk that novo banco will be sold below the value of the recapitalisation. is this a problem from your perspective? it is premature to say anything on this. your sustainability analyses imply levels of growth and primary balances in the next 10 to 20 years hard to achieve. how worried are you about the sustainability

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, 4 july 2013. * * * 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 commission vice - president, mr. rehn. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. incoming information has confirmed our previous assessment. underlying price pressures in the euro area are expected to remain subdued over the medium term. in keeping with this picture, monetary and, in particular, credit dynamics remain subdued. inflation expectations for the euro area continue to be firmly anchored in line with our aim of maintaining inflation rates below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. at the same time, recent confidence indicators based on survey data have shown some further improvement from low levels. our monetary policy stance is geared towards maintaining the degree of monetary accommodation warranted by the outlook for price stability and promoting stable money market conditions. it thereby provides support to a recovery in economic activity later in the year and in 2014. looking ahead, our monetary policy stance will remain accommodative for as long as necessary. the governing council expects the key ecb interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time. this expectation is based on the overall subdued outlook for inflation extending into the medium term, given the broad - based weakness in the real economy and subdued monetary dynamics. in the period ahead, we will monitor all incoming information on economic and monetary developments and assess any impact on the outlook for price stability. let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis. real gdp declined by 0. 3 % in the first quarter of 2013, following a contraction of 0. 6 % in the last quarter of 2012. at the same time, labour market conditions remain weak. recent developments in cyclical indicators, particularly those based on survey data, indicate some further improvement from low levels. looking ahead to later in the year and to 2014, euro area export growth should benefit from a gradual recovery in global demand, while domestic demand should be supported by the accommodative monetary policy stance as well as the recent gains