, too, there is also strong political resistance in many countries, including notably the united states, to the idea that public - taxpayers ’ - money should be used to bail out private creditors, especially foreign creditors. alternative external financing need not come solely from the public sector. private finance would, in principle, serve the same purpose, and in many situations market price adjustments may be sufficient to stem the capital outflow. but given the extent of the loss of confidence in the present case it would be optimistic to think that other private lenders were queuing up to volunteer to stand in place of those that are rushing for the exit. in practice in the present situation private support means persuading existing creditors that their assets will be better protected if they are prepared to leave them in place. and they may be prepared to do so, if all other major creditors agree to do the same, especially if official support is being made available in parallel. but in this case, too, difficult judgments have to be made. there is a danger that, if private creditors have to be in effect coerced into staying put, they will immediately cut their positions elsewhere, while they can, adding to the international contagion. achieving a reasonable balance between market and macro - economic policy adjustment and official and private financing was never going to be easy. it depends upon the good sense and judgment of key players all around the world - the governments and central banks as well as major market participants in both the major creditor and the debtor countries, as well as the international organisations. my impression is that after the initial shocks, in which market adjustments have been massively overdone, the key players are now co - operating more effectively to bring about stabilisation. within the constraints imposed upon it, the imf in particular is playing a very positive leading role. and i particularly welcome the constructive part which the major commercial banks, from all the main creditor countries, are now playing in rolling over their loans to korea. this has already helped to begin to stabilise the situation there, and it has provided a breathing space while new market financing is organised. together with the availability of the further official support already committed, this, i am reasonably confident, will enable korea to regain control of its external position, and go on to rebuild confidence on the back of the underlying strengths of its economy and an already rapidly improving current account. that, in turn, would do more than anything to help to re -

christine lagarde : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, and mr luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 11 april 2024. * * * good afternoon, the vice - president and i welcome you to our press conference. the governing council today decided to keep the three key ecb interest rates unchanged. the incoming information has broadly confirmed our previous assessment of the medium - term inflation outlook. inflation has continued to fall, led by lower food and goods price inflation. most measures of underlying inflation are easing, wage growth is gradually moderating, and firms are absorbing part of the rise in labour costs in their profits. financing conditions remain restrictive and our past interest rate increases continue to weigh on demand, which is helping to push down inflation. but domestic price pressures are strong and are keeping services price inflation high. we are determined to ensure that inflation returns to our two per cent medium - term target in a timely manner. we consider that the key ecb interest rates are at levels that are making a substantial contribution to the ongoing disinflation process. our future decisions will ensure that our policy rates will stay sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary. if our updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission were to further increase our confidence that inflation is converging to our target in a sustained manner, it would be appropriate to reduce the current level of monetary policy restriction. in any event, we will continue to follow a data - dependent and meeting - by - meeting approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction, and we are not precommitting to a particular rate path. the decisions taken today are set out in a press release available on our website. i will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing and will then explain our assessment of financial and monetary conditions. economic activity the economy remained weak in the first quarter. while spending on services is resilient, manufacturing firms are facing weak demand and production is still subdued, especially in energy - intensive sectors. surveys point to a gradual recovery over the course of this year, led by services. this recovery is expected to be supported by rising real incomes, resulting from lower inflation, increased wages and improved terms of trade. in addition, the growth of euro area exports should pick up over the coming quarters, as the global