nonstandard measures to remain capable of effective intervention. the topic of monetary policy flexibility has acquired growing importance in the euro area over the past few years, given that low inflation has been an after - effect of the crisis. in order to ensure that inflation returns towards its target over the medium term, monetary policy became 5 / 8 bis central bankers'speeches extraordinarily accommodative – including by means of non - standard measures such as the asset purchase programme. one thing is clear to me : monetary policy will need more water under its keel again going forward. in december of last year, the governing council of the ecb decided to discontinue its net purchases of assets. this first step towards monetary policy normalisation was only logical because the price outlook at that time was largely consistent with our medium - term definition of price stability. in the meantime, the short - term economic outlook in the euro area has taken a perceptible turn for the worse. in early march, the ecb staff projected economic growth of 1. 1 % this year. for the next two years, however, the experts are predicting growth to accelerate to around 1½ % for each of those years. a weak economy in germany has contributed in major share to the dip in euro area growth this year. it cannot be explained merely by the oft - cited problems in the automotive industry. owing to dampened foreign demand, exports have likewise provided no meaningful stimulus since early 2018. in addition, household consumption went on to grow at only a sluggish pace. however, given the excellent situation in the labour market and rising incomes, i expect private consumption in germany to overcome its slump. initial signs of this are already visible : in the first quarter, retail trade saw a sharp increase in sales. as things stand today, there are many signs that the economy is only suffering a temporary slump and that, once it gets over its setback, growth will accelerate. such soft patches have occurred time and again in the past without culminating in a recession. for the euro area, the ecb has counted a total of 50 soft patches since 1970 but only four recessions. 17 an earlier study by the fed counted 69 soft patches – and ten recessions – for the united states from 1950 to 2011. 18 owing, above all, to weaker short - term growth, in its latest projections the ecb staff has forecast euro area inflation to rise somewhat more slowly than initially expected up until 2021.

3 digitalisation : a challenge for... 3. 1... competition policy but it is equally clear that an effective competitive framework cannot be carved in stone but needs to adapt to changes in the environment. competition law therefore needs to evolve in order to be effective in the digital age as well. platforms are a central business model of the digital economy. nearly all major internet companies have transformed themselves into platform providers, be they google, facebook, amazon or alibaba. markets in the platform economy, however, have a tendency to become concentrated. for two reasons. returns to scale are one reason. most of the time, the goods being sold are information - based goods sold globally via the internet. this involves substantial fixed costs but minimal variable costs. consider search engines, for example. once they have been set up, they can serve tens of thousands of users inexpensively. there are certainly some costs associated with any search query. however, the total costs rise relatively slowly compared with the number of users. network effects are another factor. the more people use it and the more data it contains, the greater the attractiveness of a platform. both properties favour the market leader and make it difficult for new entrants to gain a foothold in the market. such network effects occur even in cases where the platform ’ s users are not in direct contact with one another. for example, consumers are drawn to platforms offering an attractive array of goods and services. sellers in turn flock to those platforms in large numbers where they can find a broad base of possible purchasers of their products. the economist jean tirole has therefore compared digital platforms to large cities : even though most of their residents don ’ t know each other, they all benefit from the fact that cities are home to many firms and offer a rich cultural life. 12 network effects and returns to scale in the digital sphere enable individual firms to prevail. mention is often made in this connection of the rise of “ superstar ” firms which can use their market power to reap higher profit margins and make it difficult for competitors to enter the market. in future, policymakers and antitrust regulators will need to pay particular attention to these problems of digitalisation to prevent the markets from becoming a real - life game of monopoly in which only one player wins and all others lose. indeed, such steps towards modernisation are being investigated. the european commission, for instance, has just received an expert report, and germany ’ s federal government has