or later, we should publish the minutes. what do the other governing council members think about that? when could the minutes be published for the first time? we are discussing this topic intensively. you mentioned that, in its most recent decision, the governing council also responded to the deteriorated credit conditions. what is the reason for the steep rise in capital market rates? one factor is the changing monetary policy in the united states. at the same time, the developments in the money market reveal fears about a withdrawal of the excessive liquidity in the market. after all, banks in the euro area are gradually repaying their funds1 but that is surely a good sign. yes, that indicates a return to normal conditions. on the one hand, banks can find funding more easily because savers and enterprises are again depositing more of their money at banks. on the other hand, the banks are also repaying the loans from the ecb with funds obtained through the deleveraging of their balance sheets – that is the bad news. that in turn restricts their scope for extending credit. ecb president mario draghi described the promise of low interest rates for an extended period of time as “ unprecedented ”. are you not afraid of making it too easy for the euro area governments to postpone reforms? we are aware of the risk that governments might take advantage of our decision in this way. we must find the right balance between monetary policy necessities and the avoidance of adverse incentives. history will tell whether we did so successfully. where is the line that the ecb may not cross? in the end, we focus on our mandate. we must maintain price stability. inflationary risks are currently low. obtained through the three - year ltros. bis central bankers ’ speeches you assume that inflation will remain within the set margins? we have every reason to assume so. and we will do everything to ensure that it stays that way. but with mario draghi ’ s promise to do “ whatever it takes to preserve the euro ”, isn ’ t the ecb giving the completely wrong signals? surely the governments can now just sit back. so far we have successfully tackled acute crisis situations. however, the question is whether we thereby relieved the pressure to implement reforms to such an extent that necessary adjustments in national budgets have not been sufficient. the reform efforts in many places are impressive, even if labour market and product market reforms in some countries leave something to be desired. all in all, reforms are proceeding

of time ” or even lowering them further. experts are speaking of “ forward guidance ”. was that a compromise solution? it ’ s not a compromise solution, it was a matter of giving a clear signal to eliminate uncertainties. we decided on it unanimously. and indeed we are not categorically ruling out further interest rate steps. our focus is to ensure that market expectations as regards our monetary policy stance are more in line with our assessment of the medium - term outlook for price developments. there have recently been discrepancies. it is a known fact, however, that by contrast with the practice of the us federal reserve system and the bank of japan, you don ’ t give the markets any objective criteria in order to manage interest rate expectations. why not? of course we give clear criteria. unlike the fed, for example, the ecb has laid down a quantitative definition of price stability from the outset, i. e. since 1999, and it clarified in 2003 that the ecb ’ s governing council aims to keep the euro area inflation rate at below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. the markets are well aware of this quantitative definition bis central bankers ’ speeches of price stability and, as i said, it was and is our intention that market expectations about the path of our monetary policy should be more closely in line with our assessment of price developments in the medium term. and what do you mean by “ an extended period of time ”? that recently caused some confusion. that is a strong signal. the period of time is based on our assessment that inflation will remain subdued. this development is indicated by the weak trends in monetary and credit dynamics as well as the weak aggregate demand. as long as these trends persist, the key interest rates will remain at present levels or will be lowered further. does this strong signal constitute a revolution in the ecb ’ s communication? we have described our assessment of the current situation in order to give markets an indication of the basis for our future decisions. for us, that is a very significant change in our communication, but not in our monetary policy strategy. there has been no change in our objective to maintain price stability in the medium term or in our two - pillar analysis framework. after this meeting too, people speculated about which of the governing council members expressed which opinion. wouldn ’ t it therefore make sense to publish the minutes of the meetings, as does the fed? indeed, these speculations confirm my opinion that, sooner