are different views. i would not qualify this as surprising or even negative as bis central bankers ’ speeches such. in the future, we will also always try to reach consensus. but sometimes we have to take decisions. you have mentioned the impact the ecb ’ s policy has on the euro. your colleague ewald nowotny made even more blunt comments by saying the aim was to weaken the currency. is the ecb also in this respect becoming more like other central banks, which implicitly use the exchange rate as an instrument? don ’ t you fear counter - measures by others? i have to contradict you : we have not taken a single decision which was aimed directly to the exchange rate. no one can say that. our monetary policy is targeted to domestic objectives. we are justified to do so because of the difficult situation of low inflation we are in. of course everybody knows that unavoidably there are consequences for the exchange rate. the devaluation of the euro is a collateral consequence of our policy. but what really matters is the domestic objective. not a goal for the exchange rate. we have not changed our policy in that respect. this reminds me of japan. in 2013 japanese leaders also said that the ultra - expansionary monetary policy was aimed at domestic targets and not to weaken the yen. at that time also european policymakers and central bankers doubted and criticized that. if you read the imf or the g20 statements, the japanese policy was always considered acceptable because it was directed towards understandable domestic targets. now the same applies to the euro area, although in a different scale : we are not in deflation and we will not be in deflation. in germany the ecb ’ s policy is heavily criticized. this will increase with the planned asset purchases. one concern is that the ecb takes risks on its own balance sheet which could at the end cause some problems for taxpayers again. isn ’ t it a big risk that the support in germany for the ecb could be get lost completely? this is of course a concern to us. we don ’ t live in an ivory tower. but we have a mandate and this mandate is for the 18 euro area countries as a whole. but i also think there are a lot of misunderstandings and unjustified fears in germany. just to give one example : when we started buying some government bonds for the first time in 2010, everybody was writing in germany about the forthcoming hyperinflation. this did

seen a significant upturn in long - term interest rates in the euro area since the end of may. this development was certainly affected by the continued increase in bond yields in the united states over the same period. more recently, however, domestic factors have probably played a more important role in the determination of domestic bond yields than was previously the case. these factors include financial market perceptions of more evidence pointing to a further strengthening in economic activity in the euro area during the year, accompanied by a modest pick - up in inflation expectations from the low levels seen in recent months. the more positive market sentiment regarding the prospects for euro area output growth has also been reflected in a narrowing over recent weeks of the relatively wide differentials between us and euro area bond yields. exchange rate developments do not yet reflect these very same factors. as we have said on earlier occasions, the governing council believes that the euro is firmly based on internal price stability and therefore, has the clear potential to achieve a stronger external value. the governing council reaffirmed its view at today ’ s meeting that the monetary policy of the eurosystem will safeguard the euro ’ s internal purchasing power and will thereby support its international value. the prospects for a more broadly based and sustained recovery in the world economy have become stronger. the outlook has improved further, in particular in relation to expectations of continuously strong growth in the us economy and some tentative indications that the prolonged decline in activity in japan may have come to a halt. in addition, recent developments in economic and financial indicators for the emerging market economies suggest that a recovery is under way in south - east asia. moreover, to the extent that the kosovo conflict may have had a negative impact on economic sentiment in a number of countries, its end has eliminated a risk to the outlook for economic developments in the euro area. as recent developments in latin america indicate the outlook has improved only moderately. with reference to developments in economic activity in the euro area, some important data have been released since our last meeting. most notably, eurostat has now started to publish euro area national accounts data which are based more closely on data compiled in accordance with the new esa 95 methodology. according to these estimates, the quarter - on - quarter rate of real gdp growth increased to 0. 5 % in the first quarter of this year, compared with 0. 3 % in the previous quarter. at present there is insufficient experience with regard to the properties of the new esa 95 data, in particular their susceptibility to revision