mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 7 march 2019. * * * 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 dombrovskis. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we have conducted a thorough assessment of the economic and inflation outlook, also taking into account the latest staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area. as a result, the governing council took the following decisions in the pursuit of its price stability objective. first, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we now expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the end of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. second, we intend to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme for an extended period of time past the date when we start raising the key ecb interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation. third, we decided to launch a new series of quarterly targeted longer - term refinancing operations ( tltro - iii ), starting in september 2019 and ending in march 2021, each with a maturity of two years. these new operations will help to preserve favourable bank lending conditions and the smooth transmission of monetary policy. under tltro - iii, counterparties will be entitled to borrow up to 30 % of the stock of eligible loans as at 28 february 2019 at a rate indexed to the interest rate on the main refinancing operations over the life of each operation. like the outstanding tltro programme, tltro iii will feature built - in incentives for credit conditions to remain favourable. further details on the precise terms of tltro - iii will be communicated in due course. fourth, we will continue conducting our lending operations as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until the end of the reserve maintenance period starting in

to 10 percent. 16 in that case, it would be no surprise that real consumption expenditure declined by 3. 5 percent. however, even if we draw the trend based on this assumption, consumption has fallen further behind the trend since the end of 2015. moreover, if the explanation that people already responded to an expected 10 percent consumption tax hike is correct, the next consumption tax hike to 10 percent should have little effect on consumption, which i find hard to believe. in any case, if real consumption decreases, demand will decline and prices will be subject to downward pressure. while it is difficult to know exactly how large this downward pressure is, it is certain that such pressure will exist. another factor that should be mentioned is trends in the global economy. as shown in chart 7, it is clear that the stagnation in global trade since 2015 has cooled consumer sentiment through a decline in exports and stock prices, and has delayed the recovery of japan's economy. however, the tightening of the labor market seen in the decline in the unemployment rate shown in chart 3 should lead to a rise in wages and eventually in prices. there are already signs of this happening. in this context, it is useful to look at the phillips curve, which shows the link between the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. chart 8 shows the phillips curve for japan. in the chart, the inflation rate is shown on the vertical axis, the unemployment rate on the horizontal axis, and the phillips curve is given by the downward - sloping curve. as can be seen, prices only rise gradually as the unemployment rate falls, but once the unemployment rate approaches 2 percent, prices rise quickly. the unemployment rate has already fallen to 2. 8 percent. therefore, there is no doubt that prices will eventually rise as the unemployment rate continues to fall. unayama takashi, " keizai kyoshitsu 2014 - nen shouhizouzei no kyokun " [ economics class : what the 2014 consumption tax hike taught us ], nikkei, may 23, 2016. chart 8 phillips curve and tightening of the labor market y / y % chg. cpi ( all items less fresh food and energy ) price stability target of 2 percent - 1 - 2 - 3 unemployment rate % source : ministry of internal affairs and communications. concluding remarks as stated so far, the bank's monetary policy measures have produced excellent results so far and with regard to prices, at least a situation in which there is no longer deflation