a new series of banknotes is currently being introduced. the €50 banknote was issued recently and will be followed by the €100 and €200 banknotes soon. and you ’ re withdrawing the €500 banknote from circulation? exactly. we ’ re no longer printing the €500 banknote because it has become too popular for money laundering purposes and other unsavoury uses. so we ’ re stopping it. a great deal of our time is also occupied by payments, all the techniques used to transfer money from one account to another. just a month ago, we launched a real - time payment system which allows all euro area banks, if they want, to make person - to - person transfers within a matter of seconds. there ’ s a second thing i wanted to ask you. what is qe, or quantitative easing? it ’ s incomprehensible to the general public, but it ’ s a staggering programme : over the past few years, ecb traders – your traders – have purchased €2. 5 trillion in public and private 1 / 8 bis central bankers'speeches debt. the programme has been halted. what purpose did it serve? yes, that ’ s right. over four years, between 2015 and 2018 – our last net purchases were made a few days ago, just before christmas – we bought european public and private debt amounting to €2. 6 trillion. why? it ’ s very simple : to reduce the cost of financing in the euro area. the central banks – they teach this in high school – steer the overnight interest rate. but, this is not sufficient as firms borrow over a period of three, five, ten years. so the three - year, five - year and ten - year interest rates also need to be lowered. to do this, we buy government bonds, and this has considerably improved financing conditions, which, in turn, boosts consumption and investment in the euro area. €2. 5 trillion, mr cœure – you say this has given a boost to consumption and investment. but ultimately if we look at growth, all this money quite frankly doesn ’ t seem – at least to people in france – to have gone to them, into their pockets, into a rebounding economy... of course it ’ s gone to them! through all the mechanisms that make the economy work : lowering interest rates for lending to companies, which we did not only in france and germany, but also in greece,

attract foreign direct investment ( fdi ). one way to do that is by completing quickly privatization projects which are at a mature stage, as well as stepping up the pace of the overall privatization and real estate development programme. fdi, besides closing the investment gap, promotes greater trade ties with countries and companies with cutting edgetechnologies. this will allow integration of greek companies into global value chains, increasing openness of the economy and improving both the quantity and quality of greek exports. 8. supporting the unemployed and enhancing employment and training programmes. with unemployment at very high levels, it is essential to provide immediate support to the unemployed and those marginally attached to the labour market by using active labour market policies and targeted social transfers to counter temporary income losses and shorten job transitions. in the medium term, emphasis should be placed on skill upgrading and retraining policies to get people back into work. 6. final remarks a major issue in the coming months is the consolidation of confidence and the improvement of the country ’ s creditworthiness, which will allow the return of the greek sovereign to financial markets on sustainable terms after the end of the programme in august 2018. the steps that will make an effective contribution in this direction are : • first, the implementation of the reform and privatization programme and the preparation for the timely conclusion of the fourth and final review, which will mark the end of the programme ; • second, the specification of medium - term debt re - profiling measures, which will enable greece ’ s access to bond markets on sustainable terms and will facilitate the inclusion of greek government bonds in the ecb ’ s quantitative easing programme. 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches • third, the complete lifting of capital controls, in connection with the improvement of the economic outlook and depositors ’ confidence in the greek banking system. new bond issuances, while still in the esm programme, coupled with the forthcoming esm disbursements ( in line with the june 2017 eurogroup commitment ) could be used to build up a cash buffer to support investors ’ confidence and facilitate greece ’ s market access. such a cash buffer would be particularly useful in the event that greece ’ s credit rating has not improved to investment grade by the end of the programme in august 2018 ( currently, five notches lower ). however, notwithstanding the existence of a cash buffer to consolidate confidence over the medium term, it is important to clarify the environment in which the greek economy will move after the end of the