because they are least able to absorb income shocks ( honohan ( 2005 ) ). this crisis appears to have been no different. meanwhile, the crisis - induced narrowing of wealth inequalities has been at least partially reversed as asset prices have reflated rapidly over recent years. the occupy movement. they took up the baton for the 99 % in 2011. at least at first, occupy were treated with all of the seriousness of a local student protest. but rather remarkably occupy became a global outfit, albeit a rather loosely - fitting one. occupy touched a moral nerve among the many. the 1 % ers in davos had inequality as their main theme this year. in the words i used when addressing occupy in 2012, there is now a broader acceptance that “ they were right ” in their diagnosis ( haldane ( 2012 ) ). criticism of occupy today tends to focus not on their diagnosis, but on their lack of prescription for curing the ills of inequality. bill de blasio. he was elected mayor of new york in november 2013 on a signature theme of tackling widening inequality in the city. his campaign slogan was “ a tale of two cities ”. and this was no ordinary victory. bill de blasio won with a remarkable 73 % of the popular vote. and finally, thomas piketty. enough has already been said and written about a book bought by many, read by few and understood by even fewer ( piketty ( 2014 ) ). i am guilty on all three charges. i suspect never, in the field of human endeavour, has so bis central bankers ’ speeches simple a line chart done so much to fuel the debate among so many, not just in the salons of paris but in the starbucks of london and new york. suffice to say, the inequality issue seems unlikely to be a french fashion. it is a global public policy trend and a rising one. inequality is emerging after a half - century in the wilderness. the surprise may be that it has taken so long. it is well - known, from survey and experimental evidence, that a sense of “ fairness ” is a deeply - held and richly - valued psychological trait in humans ( bowles ( 2012 ) ). and if piketty is right, inequality trends are self - perpetuating as wealth begets wealth. economic and financial stability that naturally begs the question of whether anything should be done. on the face of it, this is not the business of a central

expectations stand at low levels. measures of underlying inflation have remained generally muted, although there are some indications of a mild increase in line with previous expectations. while labour cost pressures have strengthened amid tighter labour markets, the weaker growth momentum is delaying their pass - through to inflation. over the medium term, inflation is expected to increase, supported by our monetary policy measures, the ongoing economic expansion and solid wage growth. this assessment is also broadly reflected in the december 2019 eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area, which foresee annual hicp inflation at 1. 2 % in 2019, 1. 1 % in 2020, 1. 4 % in 2021 and 1. 6 % in 2022. compared with the september 2019 ecb staff macroeconomic projections, the outlook for hicp inflation has been revised up slightly for 2020 and down slightly for 2021, mainly driven by the expected future path of energy prices. turning to the monetary analysis, broad money ( m3 ) growth stood at 5. 6 % in october 2019, unchanged from the previous month. sustained rates of broad money growth reflect ongoing bank credit creation for the private sector and low opportunity costs of holding m3 relative to other financial instruments. the narrow monetary aggregate m1 continues to be the main contributor to broad money growth on the components side. the growth of loans to firms and households remained solid, benefiting from the continued passthrough of our accommodative monetary policy stance to bank lending rates. the annual growth rate of loans to non - financial corporations increased to 3. 8 % in october, up from 3. 6 % in september, while the annual growth rate of loans to households continued on its gradual upward path, reaching 3. 5 % in october. our accommodative monetary policy stance will help to safeguard very favourable bank lending conditions and will continue to support access to financing, across all economic sectors and in particular for small and medium - sized enterprises. 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 still necessary for the continued robust convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. in order to reap the full benefits from our monetary policy measures, other policy areas must contribute more decisively to raising the longer - term growth potential, supporting aggregate demand at the current juncture and reducing vulnerabilities. the implementation of structural 2 / 3 bis