speech hearing of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament speech by christine lagarde, president of the ecb, at the hearing of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament brussels, 26 september 2022 it is a pleasure to be back here in brussels with you for our third hearing this year. russia ’ s unjustified war of aggression on ukraine continues to cast a shadow over europe. my thoughts are with the ukrainian people suffering the senseless atrocities of the war. the economic consequences for the euro area have continued to unfold since we last met in june and the outlook is darkening. inflation remains far too high and is likely to stay above our target for an extended period. at our meeting earlier this month, the governing council therefore took the major step to frontload the transition from the prevailing highly accommodative level of policy rates towards levels that will ensure the timely return of inflation to our two per cent medium - term target. in line with the topics chosen for this hearing, i will provide you with a brief overview of the economic outlook and then explain our recent monetary policy decisions in greater detail. the outlook for the euro area economy the euro area economy grew by 0. 8 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, mainly owing to strong consumer spending on services as the economy reopened. economies with large tourism sectors benefited especially, as people travelled more over the summer. the still robust labour market also continued to support economic activity. notwithstanding this, we expect activity to slow substantially in the coming quarters. there are four main reasons behind this. first, high inflation is dampening spending and production throughout the economy, and these headwinds are reinforced by gas supply disruptions. second, the strong demand for services that came with the reopening of the economy is losing steam. third, the weakening in global demand, also in the context of tighter monetary policy in many major economies, and the worsening terms of trade will mean less support for the euro area economy. fourth, uncertainty remains high, as reflected in falling household and business confidence. these developments have led to a downward revision of the latest staff projections for economic growth for the remainder of the current year and throughout 2023. staff now expect the economy to grow by 3. 1 per cent in 2022, 0. 9 per cent in 2023 and 1. 9 per cent in 2024. inflation rose further to 9. 1 per cent in august. energy and food price

risk assessments performed, statement of compliance etc. ) as this will assist the bank further in its supervisory task. to keep up with worldwide corporate governance developments, the bank is continuously enhancing its risk - based supervision framework. its corporate governance notes ( which date back to 2001 ) are currently being updated to reflect the tasks and responsibilities of the supervisory board more clearly. with actualization of the national ordinance on the supervision of banking and credit institutions at the end of 2015, the supervisory framework of the bank was further strengthened allowing it to impose fines and penalties in case of non - compliance with our laws and regulations. with the institution of the conduct supervision department, more emphasis is being placed by the bank on the supervision of the behavior of the institutions boards in the execution of their responsibilities. i hereby conclude my introductory remarks and pass the word now to mrs. mayesi hammoud who will elaborate further on corporate governance aspects as established by the corporate law of curacao. i wish you further a pleasant stay on our island and hope that the discussions of this morning will be very fruitful.