on energy and food, such as lower - income households. a return to price stability – that is, a rate of inflation in - line with our 2 per cent target over the medium term – is necessary for a stable economic environment to support long - term growth. as interest rates are the primary tool to fight inflation, my colleagues on the ecb's governing council and i started raising our key policy rates in july last year. these are now at 2 per cent. our primary mandate is price stability and we are determined to achieve our inflation target by aligning aggregate demand more closely with aggregate supply conditions in the euro area economy as a whole. raising the policy rate also signals our commitment to price stability. it sends a clear message that we will not allow inflation to stay above 2 per cent and helps to contain inflation expectations, guarding against the emergence of self - reinforcing inflation dynamics and tackling the risk of a persistent increase in inflation expectations. we need to continue to increase rates at our meeting next week – by taking a similar step to our december decisions – and also at our march meeting, although our future policy decisions need to continue to be data - dependent given the prevailing uncertainty. to sum up, inflation remains far too high and interest rates will have to rise significantly at a steady pace to reach levels sufficiently restrictive to ensure a timely return of inflation to our 2 per cent medium - term target. bringing inflation back to target is essential for the wellbeing of our economy and community. domestic outlook turning to the domestic outlook, our most recent quarterly bulletin described 2022 as a year of two halves, with strong growth in the first half and slowing considerably in the second. 1 we expect that 2023 is likely to be a mirror of this year, with our economy continuing to adjust to the energy shock but a strong labour market and moderating inflation driving a recovery in household real incomes, reversing the trend later in the year and into 2024. while the domestic economy was predicted to slow considerably, our forecasts still pointed to positive ( albeit lower ) growth for 2023 as a whole. we will be updating these projections in our next quarterly bulletin in early march. 2 domestic headline inflation continues to be high at 8. 2 per cent in december, but moderating energy prices, particularly gas prices, points to an improving outlook. our expectation remains that inflation peaked in q4 of 2022 and will moderate as the year progresses – assuming no further shocks – supporting consumer spending

company branches – and strong demands for greater economic and social justice. in this context, i know that i can count on french banks to strictly comply with their commitments made to the president of the republic on 11 december regarding the capping of bank charges at eur 25 a month for 3. 5 million vulnerable customers. these measures apply now – at the latest in february – and they will be controlled throughout the year. the acpr has made honouring this commitment a priority for its on - site and off - site inspections in 2019. the french observatory for banking inclusion ( oib ), which i chair, with the participation of consumer and social integration associations, will monitor the figures and take any necessary action. the oib will also ensure that banks meet their commitments regarding the diffusion among these vulnerable customers of the “ specific offer ”, and its lower cap on bank charges ( eur 20 / month 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches and eur 200 / year ). 2019 will also mark the 30th anniversary of the neiertz act : we welcome the decrease in the flow of newly overindebted persons whose number has finally returned to its 1989 level, since it stood at 90, 000 “ first - time applicants ” in 2018, against 140, 000 five years ago! a more recent yet very promising development is our mobilisation in favour of green finance. in the first quarter of 2019, the acpr will publish the results of its survey on climate risk management by banks and insurance companies. the network of central banks and supervisors for greening the financial system ( ngfs ), launched by the banque de france in early 2018, is a considerable success. it has grown from eight to 24 participants on five continents. its first report, which will be presented at a conference in paris on 17 april, will provide new proposals for action. i would like to end with a few words about the banque de france. our institution is strongly committed to improving its performance. in 2018, the banque de france cut back its net operating expenses by 8 % compared to 2015, which represents an annual saving of eur 100 million. and we are innovating in - house : the lab, the madre blockchain, or the success of our dematerialised acpr authorisation procedure, which came into effect in november 2018. in these more turbulent times, our first responsibility is to stay the course both in serving the french economy and in pursuing our transformation.