The reason for the downward revision is that the improvement in the aggregate supply and demand balance – reflecting the downward revision of the economic outlook – is expected to be delayed and that crude oil prices were corrected downward. Nevertheless, despite the downward revision, the Bank’s CPI projections are still higher than those of economists in the private sector.
According to that Treaty, the so-called “Eurosystem” consists of the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the 11 Member States. Hence the Deutsche Bundesbank is integrated in the Eurosystem, rather than sunk – a small but significant distinction. I am not addressing you today as one of the last representatives of a species doomed to extinction.