over the horizon of the eurosystem staff projections. upside risks to the inflation scenario prevailed, as implied by the economic analysis and confirmed by the strong monetary and credit growth in an environment of already ample liquidity. the governing council thus decided on 2 march 2006 to increase the key ecb interest rates by a further 25 basis points. the information which has become available since the governing council ’ s decision on 2 march 2006 confirms our assessment that a further adjustment of our accommodative monetary policy stance in march was warranted. it is essential that inflation expectations continue to be solidly anchored at levels in line with price stability. interest rates across the whole maturity spectrum are still at very low levels in both nominal and real terms. monetary and credit growth remain strong and liquidity abundant. our monetary policy thus remains accommodative. both economic analysis and monetary analysis indicate that upside risks to price stability prevail. accordingly, the governing council will continue to monitor very closely all developments, so as to ensure that risks to price stability do not materialise. by maintaining price stability over the medium term, we preserve the purchasing power of households, and by ensuring that inflation expectations are solidly anchored at levels in line with price stability, we help to maintain favourable financing conditions for investors. in this way, we make an ongoing important contribution to sustainable economic growth and job creation. fiscal policies and the revised stability and growth pact the preservation of price stability and the attainment of higher sustainable growth require the support of sound fiscal policies and the implementation of appropriate structural reforms. i would now like to address a number of pertinent economic policy issues, starting with fiscal policy. the spring fiscal notifications point to a euro area general government deficit of around 2. 4 % of gdp in 2005. thanks to comparatively strong revenue developments, this outcome is slightly better than the deficit of 2. 5 % expected a few months ago. however, this improvement has generally not been translated into lower planned deficits : in 2006, according to the updated stability programmes, the euro area general government deficit is expected to decrease only marginally to around 2. 3 % of gdp, and the debt ratio is set to remain above 70 % of gdp. these figures are still of a preliminary nature. in some countries, deficit - debt adjustments ( that is, the differences between the change in debt and the deficit ) continue to be sizeable. this may be a cause for concern, considering that in some cases in the past

jean - claude trichet : interview with frankfurter allgemeine zeitung interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, and the frankfurter allgemeine zeitung conducted by mr benedikt fehr, frankfurt am main, 17 december 2008. * * * mr trichet, ten years ago you were governor of the french central bank. how did you celebrate the historical event, the introduction of the euro? at midnight i invited all employees, who had worked extremely hard towards this event, to join me to celebrate both the euro and the new year with foie gras and champagne. and i told them that the people of europe were very fortunate that they had performed this task so well, as had all other colleagues in the euro area. what did the introduction of the euro mean to you personally? i can tell you that i was full of pride on that day. i had been in favour of the creation of the euro for a long time. in the early 1990s i had negotiated, on behalf of the french government, the maastricht treaty regarding the creation of the currency union ; and it was an honour to negotiate with horst kohler, then german staatssekretar and now president of the federal republic of germany. as the governor of the independent banque de france, which became fully independent on 1 january 1994, i had, together with my colleagues on the conseil de la politique monetaire, conducted a monetary policy which resulted in inflation in france averaging 1. 4 % per year in the five years prior to 1 january 1999. if we had not achieved this, the euro could not have been introduced. have you ever doubted the success of the euro in the past ten years? no, certainly not. but of course we are living in times when one cannot sit back complacently. like all central banks, the european central bank has had to manage many challenges and shocks, such as the asian crisis, the bursting of the internet bubble, the oil and commodity price shock or the threats to the stability and growth pact. but i was always convinced that the euro is a success – and proof of the fact that the people of europe are able to put into effect a historic plan that they have undertaken. not all europeans share your enthusiasm. according to some surveys, many europeans are still critical of the euro. the survey i have in mind was conducted by the european commission