are closely monitored by the ecb in terms of our economic analysis. within this context, while we take the euro area real estate sector into account in assessing risks to price stability, we certainly do not target house prices, or for that matter, any other asset prices. we do monitor asset prices closely because of the potentially high costs for price stability and for the economy as a whole that are associated with strong appreciations and rapid reversals in asset prices. also, our monetary analysis covers the monitoring of money and credit which often reflect the evolution of prices and house purchases. in this sense, a strategy which on top of our economic analysis regularly assesses money and credit developments has an important benefit on the monitoring side in that it can contribute to identifying and limiting the emergence of unsustainable developments in asset prices. in terms of recent developments in the euro area real estate sector, the latest available data on house prices appears to support the notion of a cooling in euro area housing market developments after a prolonged period of unusually high growth rates in many euro area countries. that said, house price growth generally remains relatively buoyant in the euro area on average when seen in historical perspective – notwithstanding considerable heterogeneity in underlying country developments. the outlook for the euro area as a whole remains that of a soft landing, as price increases moderate gradually and further developments evolve in line with fundamentals. within this context, a continued moderation of residential investment would also be likely. the above economic assessment is complemented by information from our monetary assessment, in particular that the annual growth rate of loans to households was in october at 6. 8 %, from 7. 0 % in the third quarter and 7. 5 % in the second quarter. in this sense, there is no indication that the financial market turmoil has, as yet, limited lending to households, the moderation of which started as long ago as the second quarter of 2006. i am now at your disposal for questions.

. 4 per cent in 2023, revised up throughout the projection horizon compared with the march 2021 projection exercise. turning to the monetary analysis, the annual growth rate of broad money ( m3 ) declined to 9. 2 per cent in april 2021, from 10. 0 per cent in march and 12. 3 per cent in february. the deceleration in march and april was due partly to strong negative base effects as the large inflows in the initial phase of the pandemic crisis dropped out of the annual growth statistics. it also reflects a moderation in shorter - term monetary dynamics, mainly originating from weaker developments in deposits by households and firms in april and lower liquidity needs as the pandemic situation improves. the ongoing asset purchases by the eurosystem continue to be the largest source of money creation. while also decelerating, the narrow monetary aggregate m1 has remained the main contributor to broad money growth. its strong contribution is consistent with a still heightened preference for liquidity in the money - holding sector and a low opportunity cost of holding the most liquid forms of money. the annual growth rate of loans to the private sector declined to 3. 2 per cent in april, from 3. 6 per cent in march and 4. 5 per cent in february. this decline took place amid opposing dynamics in lending to non - financial corporations and to households. the annual growth rate of loans to nonfinancial corporations fell to 3. 2 per cent in april, after 5. 3 per cent in march and 7. 0 per cent in february. the contraction reflects large negative base effects and some frontloading in loan creation in march relative to april. the annual growth rate of loans to households rose to 3. 8 per cent in april, after 3. 3 per cent in march and 3. 0 per cent in february, supported by solid monthly 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches flows and positive base effects. overall, our policy measures, together with the measures adopted by national governments and other european institutions, remain essential to support bank lending conditions and access to financing, in particular for those most affected by the pandemic. to sum up, a cross - check of the outcome of the economic analysis with the signals coming from the monetary analysis confirmed that an ample degree of monetary accommodation is necessary to support economic activity and the robust convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2 per cent over the medium term. regarding fiscal policies, an ambitious and coordinated fiscal stance remains