3 bis central bankers'speeches gradually, patience and persistence in our monetary policy remain warranted. in the light of this, the governing council in january maintained all elements of its accommodative monetary policy stance. together, our monetary policy measures will preserve the ample degree of accommodation that remains necessary for inflation pressures to continue to build up and support headline inflation developments over the medium term. looking ahead, monetary policy will evolve in a data - dependent and time - consistent manner. once the governing council judges that the three criteria for sustained adjustment – convergence, confidence and resilience – have been met, net asset purchases will expire, in line with our guidance. from that point in time, the evolution of inflation will remain conditional on reinvestments continuing for an extended period of time and on policy rates remaining at their present levels well past the end of our net asset purchases. the stock of long - duration assets held in our portfolio will continue to put downward pressure on longer - term interest rates well beyond the end of our net purchases. policy rates remaining at their present levels well past the end of our net purchases will contribute to holding the short to intermediate portions of the yield curve in check for as long as necessary, thereby ensuring that financial conditions remain consistent with a sustained adjustment of inflation. 1 i would like to thank danielle kedan for her support in preparing this speech. 2 see, for example, the european commission ’ s “ european economic forecast – autumn 2017 ”. potential growth was estimated at 1. 4 % for 2017 and 1. 5 % for 2018 and 2019. 3 for more details, see the box entitled “ the targeted longer - term refinancing operations : an overview of the take - up and their impact on bank intermediation ”, economic bulletin, issue 3, ecb, 2017. 4 see the ecb ’ s euro area bank lending survey, january 2018, and the ecb ’ s survey on the access to finance of enterprises in the euro area, april to september 2017. 5 see the box entitled “ assessing labour market slack ”, economic bulletin, issue 3, ecb, 2017. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

willem f duisenberg : some remarks on the euro in a us context speech by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, at a breakfast meeting of the council on foreign relations, new york, 19 april 2002. * * * introduction it is an honour for me that paul volcker has introduced my presentation this morning. under his chairmanship and that of alan greenspan, the federal reserve has made an invaluable contribution to the well - being of the american people, and to the world economy. paul volcker managed to stop the inflation spiral, which started in the early 1970s, and turned it into a sustained disinflation process. the low inflation record combined with high real growth in the 1990s here in the united states also owe a lot to the courageous and determined policy that paul volcker carried out in the 1980s, which gave clear priority to monetary stability. it is also an honour for me to address such a distinguished audience in the united states. in particular last year, the attention of the european central bank ( ecb ) and the national central banks of the european countries that have adopted the euro – jointly referred to as the eurosystem – was focused on communicating to the 300 million citizens of the euro area the ins and outs of the introduction of the euro, in particular the euro banknotes and coins. at the same time, the ecb realises that it is also important to address audiences outside the euro area and the european union. although we refer to the euro as'our currency ', the impact of the euro goes beyond the boundaries of the euro area. indeed, the euro may be referred to as one of the key currencies in the world, with the eurosystem being the central bank responsible for issuing it. in particular, people on this side of the atlantic may be interested to learn more about the euro. indeed, knowledge of what is happening in europe in this respect still seems to be rather limited. this is partly because, in the 1990s, us commentators were somewhat critical of european policy makers seeking to establish a monetary union. many of these commentators thought the europeans were'building castles in the air '. however, as 1 january 1999 approached, the date when the exchange rates of 11 european countries were irrevocably fixed and the euro was introduced, it became clear that, indeed, something special was happening in europe. in my speech today, i would like to elaborate on some key aspects of the