mario draghi : ecb press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, and mr vitor constancio, vice - president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 26 april 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. we will now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the governing council. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. we continue to expect them to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases. regarding non - standard monetary policy measures, we confirm that our net asset purchases, at the current monthly pace of €30 billion, are intended to run until the end of september 2018, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the governing council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. the eurosystem will continue to reinvest the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme for an extended period of time after the end of its net asset purchases, and in any case for as long as necessary. this will contribute both to favourable liquidity conditions and to an appropriate monetary policy stance. following several quarters of higher than expected growth, incoming information since our meeting in early march points towards some moderation, while remaining consistent with a solid and broad - based expansion of the euro area economy. the underlying strength of the euro area economy continues to support our confidence that inflation will converge towards our inflation aim of below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. at the same time, measures of underlying inflation remain subdued and have yet to show convincing signs of a sustained upward trend. in this context, the governing council will continue to monitor developments in the exchange rate and other financial conditions with regard to their possible implications for the inflation outlook. overall, an ample degree of monetary stimulus remains necessary for underlying inflation pressures to continue to build up and support headline inflation developments over the medium term. this continued monetary support is provided by the net asset purchases, by the sizeable stock of acquired assets and the ongoing and forthcoming reinvestments, and by our forward guidance on interest rates. let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis. real gdp increased by 0. 7 %, quarter on quarter,

emergency credit operations, which requires at least four mpb members'concurrence, in accordance with article 65 of the bok act. in this case, financial institutions'concerns about the stigma effect could intensify. follow - up measures are necessary to ensure that banking institutions can use loans receivable as collateral without fear of the stigma effect. for example, it may be necessary to revise the bok act to expand the range of eligible collateral for the standing facility under article 64 to include loans receivable from banking institutions. if this is made possible, accessibility to the bank of korea's lending facility would be enhanced. however, simultaneously, we need to conduct reviews and studies into how to handle the moral hazard issue that could arise as a consequence. open market operations the last topic pertains to the relationship between open market operations ( omos ) and the money market. early last year, short - term rates, such as call and rp rates, hovered significantly below the policy rate. this was attributable to the substantial expansion in funds under management at asset management firms, which do not have direct access to rp transactions with the bank of korea, as short - term funds flowed into the mmf market. although short - lived, concerns were raised about the effectiveness of the conduct of monetary policy as short - term rates remained below the policy rate. therefore, the bank of korea decided to include asset managers in the list of institutions eligible for omos to address this problem. until now, the bank of korea has primarily utilized seven - day rp transactions as the main instrument for its open market operations framework. in fact, korea's money market instruments include monetary stabilization bonds with various maturities of less than three years - such as 91 days, 1 year, and 2 years - in addition to ultra - short - term rp transactions. this means that, unlike central banks in advanced countries, the bank 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches of korea can exert significant influence not only on ultra - short - term interest rates but also on short - term interest rates of less than three years. considering the unique structure of korea's money market, it is essential to pose fundamental questions. what is the optimal approach for open market operations? how should the role of monetary stabilization bonds be defined in our conduct of open market operations? concluding remarks these are just five examples of research topics for monetary policy. in the future, whenever new challenges