the latest research on the sources and magnitudes of the bias, and any corrective actions that had been taken by the bls. this type of approach would have the benefit of being objective, nonpartisan, and sufficiently flexible to take full account of the latest information. moreover, there is no reason why the two tracks could not proceed in parallel. without the second track, we are implicitly assuming, contrary to overwhelming evidence, that the most accurate estimate of the bias is zero. there has been considerable objection that such a second track procedure would be a political fix. to the contrary, assuming zero for the remaining bias is the political fix. on this issue, we should let evidence, not politics, drive policy. we have an overarching national interest in building a better measure of consumer prices and in implementing more rational indexation procedures. through these efforts, we are most likely to ensure that the original intent of the relevant pieces of legislation will be fulfilled in insulating taxpayers and benefit recipients from the effects of ongoing changes in the cost of living. at present this objective is not being met.

recovery. • specifically, we lowered all key interest rates further. our main refinancing rate now stands at 0. 15 %. accordingly, our deposit facility rate has been cut to a negative level and now stands at – 0. 10 %. • we will conduct targeted longer - term refinancing operations ( tltros ) as of september 2014. in these operations, banks will be entitled to borrow from the eurosystem, conditional on their lending to the private non - financial sector, with loans to households for house purchase being excluded. • in addition, we are intensifying our work in preparation of possible outright purchases in the market for asset - backed securities ( abss ). • furthermore, we also decided that at least until the end of 2016, we will continue to fully meet the demand of banks for liquidity in our refinancing operations – of course, against adequate collateral. • finally, we have suspended the weekly operations to absorb the liquidity injected under the securities markets programme. we took these decisions to enable our accommodative monetary policy stance to better feed through to the wider economy. weak credit growth in the euro area, particularly to small businesses, has been a major headwind for the recovery. indirectly, it has been a continuous drag on inflation over the recent past. in fact, despite significant reductions in policy interest rates and, overall, more contained macroeconomic risks, bank - intermediated credit growth remains subdued and lending rates for small businesses are well above the levels usually observed in similar phases of the business cycle. to address this challenge, our tltros are tailored to incentivise bank lending to the real economy in the euro area. the tltros will provide long - term funding to participating banks. this should ease their financing costs, allowing banks to pass on such attractive conditions bis central bankers ’ speeches to their customers. this will ease credit conditions and stimulate credit creation. moreover, the growth of our balance sheet as a result of a significant take - up in our tltros will put downward pressure on interest rates in the money markets. this will contribute further to lowering the banking sector ’ s funding costs. however, the tltros will not merely provide long - term funding. the tltros are targeted operations : the stronger the flows of new net lending to non - financial corporations and consumers ( relative to a specified benchmark ), the higher the amount that banks will be permitted to borrow from the