to ensure a high level of consumer protection and the fight against money laundering. ” indeed, prudential supervisors might come across information that could help to uncover money laundering or terrorist financing. for instance, they may obtain insights into the quality of a banks ’ general internal governance, with potential implications for the functioning of the bank ’ s aml / cft measures. our supervisors might detect information of this sort during an on - site inspection, and they can share it with the competent authorities. at the same time, the prudential supervisor can use the insights gained by aml / cft supervisors and reflect the aml / cft - related concerns in its prudential tasks. it does so, for instance, when it grants authorisations to credit institutions ; when it assess whether bank managers are fit and proper for their job ; when it assesses acquisitions of qualifying holdings ; and when it engages in ongoing supervision and the supervisory review and evaluation process ( the so - called srep ). the job of aml / cft supervisors, on the other hand, is to monitor and enforce the compliance of credit institutions and other obliged entities with the aml / cft requirements that are set out in the applicable laws. we must therefore acknowledge that the two sets of supervisors play very different roles, and synergies are limited. in order to improve cooperation between both sets of supervisors, the latest amendment to the aml directive required the ecb to sign an agreement setting out the practical modalities for exchanging information with the aml / cft supervisors of credit and financial institutions within the european economic area. this agreement was signed in january this year. and ever since, the ecb has been exchanging information under this framework. our initial experience has shown that it is particularly important to put in place robust formal procedures and exchange information in secure ways only when there is strong justification for doing so and based on welldefined relevance criteria. all this is necessary to ensure the rights of the supervised banks are protected. there is a narrow line between enabling the appropriate flow of information and ensuring the confidentiality of this information. aside from the ad hoc exchange of information, the ecb ’ s approach requires receiving assessments from aml / cft supervisory authorities at least once a year to support its annual srep, which is its main off - site supervision tool. in exchange, the ecb shares relevant excerpts of srep decision letters with aml / cft supervisors on an annual basis

, and some caution should therefore be exercised when interpreting the most recent developments in real gdp growth. however, further evidence supporting the view that growth will recover in the course of this year is also provided by the recent development of other indicators of economic activity. following successive declines, the level of industrial production appears to have stabilised in the months up to april. given the developments in industrial confidence up to june, it would appear that the trough was reached at the end of the first quarter. this points to a turning - point in activity in the industrial sector. at the same time, household sector demand patterns appear to be broadly unchanged, as indicated by a still high level of consumer confidence. therefore, while the signs of recovery are still modest and are not yet reflected in labour market developments, recent data appear to confirm the outlook for a continued improvement in the course of this year. the governing council considers it necessary that other policy areas make a decisive contribution to bolstering confidence in the euro area ’ s growth potential, particularly by means of firm structural reform measures to enhance the sustainability of public finances and the efficiency of labour and product markets. looking at the latest developments in consumer prices, the annual rate of increase in the harmonised index of consumer prices ( hicp ) fell to 1. 0 % in may, down from 1. 1 % in april. while energy prices, which had caused the rise in the overall hicp rate in the previous two months, continued to exert some upward pressure, this was more than offset by movements in other components. a lower rate of increase was recorded in may for both processed and unprocessed food prices and for services prices. hence the decline in the overall hicp rate was also reflected in the hicp rate excluding the two more volatile components – energy and seasonal food. these developments have to be seen partly in the context of a one - off base effect resulting from country - specific increases in indirect taxes which occurred last year. against this background, the expectation remains that over the next few months the rate of price increases will tend to edge upwards, mainly reflecting the increase in energy prices. in conclusion, the outlook for the maintenance of price stability in the euro area remains favourable and in line with the eurosystem ’ s definition of price stability. the governing council therefore decided to maintain the prevailing levels of the ecb interest rates. at the same time it noted that the sustained growth of monetary and credit aggregates, the slight improvement in output growth in