, examine concrete measures, and take drastic measures. moreover, it was important to announce these measures as a package rather than piecemeal policies. the purpose of this package is to further enhance monetary easing, and i personally felt that first of all it was important for the bank to announce a change in the guideline for money market operations and clarify the bank ’ s commitment regarding the time horizon based on the “ understanding of medium - to long - term price stability ” ( hereafter the “ understanding ” ). regarding the change in the guideline for money market operations, the bank lowered the target for the uncollateralized overnight call rate – the shortest interbank rate – from “ at around 0. 1 percent ” to “ at around 0 to 0. 1 percent, ” thereby clearly indicating that it was pursuing a virtually zero interest rate policy. as for the clarification of its commitment regarding the time horizon based on the “ understanding, ” policy board members agreed that ( 1 ) the bank would maintain the virtually zero interest rate policy until it judged that price stability was in sight, and ( 2 ) the “ understanding ” would be appropriate as the basis for that judgment. the “ understanding ” is the level of inflation that each of the nine policy board members understands as being consistent with price stability over the medium to long term. bis central bankers ’ speeches the “ understanding ” at present falls in a positive range of 2 percent or lower, and the midpoints of most policy board members ’ understanding are around 1 percent. in considering policy options the bank could take, the bank ’ s options within the conventional monetary policy framework were limited, given that short - term interest rates – ranging from overnight to longer - term rates – were already at levels that left little room for a further decline. in these circumstances, the bank decided on the establishment of the asset purchase program ( hereafter the program ) as the third measure in the comprehensive monetary easing package. like other policy board members, i felt that the bank should consider a variety of policy options without precluding measures that are temporary or extraordinary for a central bank, such as directly influencing longer - term rates and expanding the type of financial assets eligible for the bank ’ s purchases. the details of the program are as follows. the bank established a program on its balance sheet to conduct outright purchases of various financial assets, such as japanese government bonds ( jgbs ), cp, corporate bonds, exchange - traded funds ( etfs )

supply chains ; perhaps relocation for a number of products considered to be vital and priority products. it is up to our societies, together, to define what our common choices and our future will be. could the euro lose its value? could the inflation which is expected lead to prices increasing a little? should we be concerned about our savings? could the euro lose its value? it is stable ; we are in a floating exchange rate system and looking at that indicator, things are going well. the second question was about inflation. we would like to have a little more of it... increased prices would not be welcome by many consumers.... i know … but in any case it ’ s not a major risk on the horizon, although i ’ d like to see a little more of it. as regards savings, we should bear in mind, in any case, that we have a protection scheme covering €100, 000 for all bank accounts within the euro area. and banks today are much stronger than they were in 2008 … so we shouldn ’ t be concerned about savings with banks? no. thank you for clarifying that issue and for answering our questions. thank you very much. 6 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches