because governments are not doing enough to raise confidence in the future. if firms are simultaneously revising down their growth expectations as we expand our monetary policy, we will not see the impact we expect and which is required. yet the opposite story is also possible. if governments are determined in addressing their structural challenges, all the conditions are there for growth to surprise on the upside. we are already seeing, in countries like spain, how improved financing conditions together with targeted structural reforms can lead to stronger - than - expected growth outcomes. and if we take advantage of the window of opportunity that exists today, that possibility is there for the whole euro area. conclusion let me conclude. the success of the euro area depends on every party doing its job, including the central bank. for us that means being fully symmetric in how we interpret our mandate : acting as decisively when the inflation outlook undershoots our aim as we would when it exceeds it. this is our responsibility in the treaty and our duty to the firms and households of the euro area. remember that firms and households have entered contracts and entertain economic relationships based on the expectation that we will meet our inflation objective. if we fail, then we make their recovery from the crisis harder. and that loss of credibility would in turn make it harder for us to deliver our mandate in the future. bis central bankers ’ speeches that is why, faced with an increasing risk of a too prolonged period of low inflation, we increased our stimulus to a degree necessary to bring inflation closer to 2 %. and we will continue to monitor the progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation. bis central bankers ’ speeches

rephrase that. underneath everything, so whether it ’ s about very low interest rates, about low inflation, underneath everything is : how quickly is the european economy going to grow? indeed, how quickly is the world economy going to grow? for that — many people here i ’ m sure have studied economics to some degree — monetary policy does not have long - run effects. and unless those long - run challenges about raising the growth rate, better policies about innovation, education, making sure there ’ s enough fiscal support for the level of aggregate demand are met … — monetary policy can take care of the cycle to an extent. but that cycle is around the trend, and the trend depends on these wider policies. for us, what we say is : if fiscal policy and structural policies delivered a faster growth rate for the economy then the monetary policy challenge would be a lot less. but i think also we would be emphatic that our monetary policies will accommodate for as long as necessary. but we think the recovery would be quicker if these other policies kicked in more strongly. if they don ’ t kick in strongly, what tools are left in the chest? let me emphasise that what tools we pick out of the toolbox will depend on the particular circumstances we face. what we do emphasise is that our assessment is that it is not the case that we are at some kind of limit. in fact, the concept of monetary policy hitting an absolute limit – i think there ’ s a lot of nuance to that. but let me emphasise ; we don ’ t think we ’ re at the limit as of yet. we do think the bigger focus should be, rather than on the distance of the central banking world to the limits, on the role that other policies can contribute to make this limit question less relevant, less interesting, because the economy will be growing more quickly. you touched on something that i think resonates with everyone in this room, which is climate change. that is becoming part of the banking stress test here in europe. when do you see climate issues being part of monetary policy for the european central bank? the remit is quite narrow at this point. what will it take, when do you see the time frame of it becoming part of that? lane : let me answer that on different levels. first of all, it ’ s already part of monetary policy. when i ’ m trying to forecast the european economy for the next two years, the future of