recover there and we can see how the economic situation is gradually getting back to normal. this is the most important thing we must take into account and which will undoubtedly help calm investors and the economy. luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, thank you very much for speaking to us. i think that you have also been in confinement lately, is that correct? yes, that ’ s correct. we have been teleworking for more or less ten days now. and how do you organise your work? do you maintain contact with colleagues in frankfurt, madrid, etc? we hold teleconferences all the time, and there is of course a small team of people who are working on site at the ecb premises. everything else is handled via teleconference. from now on, ecb decisions taken at meetings called by the president and the governing council, can they be taken as normal via videoconference? can you take effective measures from there? yes, of course. the executive board is now always held by teleconferences, for example. we speak every day. we hold team meetings. we continue to operate because teleworking is possible. it ’ s not ideal, but clearly in these circumstances it ’ s the only option available and it works relatively well. well, that is a good sign, isn ’ t it? that everything hasn ’ t ground to a halt. yes, of course it hasn ’ t. luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, thank you very much for speaking with us. thank you. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

crisis – have failed to calm the markets. does the ecb have an ace up its sleeve, if i can use that expression? or will it provide a reminder of president draghi ’ s words, “ whatever it takes to preserve the euro. and believe me, it will be enough. ”? i think that the ecb president christine lagarde has made it clear that we will do what needs to be done. there is no doubt about that. this crisis is different. it is not financial in nature. it could become financial if we did nothing, but it ’ s not a financial crisis. it ’ s a health crisis that will have a huge economic impact. what we can do is relieve any financial pressures that may arise. but the main action will come from governments, through fiscal policy. the ecb has announced that it will buy more debt, that it will inject liquidity. that is correct, we have announced that we will buy €120 billion more than we were buying before. the previous figure was €240 billion, and we can be flexible in our approach. we will also ensure that the markets continue to function properly, that fragmentation does not occur, particularly with the spreads, since this would affect the transmission of our monetary policy impulses. that ’ s why we are taking decisive action. are you in favour of adjusting interest rates like the us federal reserve or the bank of england? our interest rates were already much lower. first of all, i feel that the most important step to take was to introduce liquidity measures. european banks have all the liquidity they need at their disposal, under very favourable conditions. the second step comes through bond purchases. these two measures will have a much greater effect than adjusting interest rates, which in europe were already – 0. 50 %. the volatility that the markets are experiencing, the instability : is it temporary? do you think that investors will somehow calm down once they see all of the measures that have been taken starting to take effect? as you mentioned earlier, i think that all of the central banks, all of the governments, we are going to do everything we possibly can. but calm will return once we actually start to see that the epidemic is under control. that is the key issue. take china for example. china is a leading 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches indicator of what might happen. after experiencing a drastic fall in economic activity for two months, things have started to