And it would underline our strong determination to bring inflation back to our target. Monetary policy is responsible for ensuring price stability. There is no doubt about that. The Eurosystem has to deliver: The people in the euro area should be able to rely on us to fulfil our mandate and ensure price stability. That is my top priority.
There is still a lot of hard work to do. Inflation is a tough nut to crack. If we want to crack it, monetary policy has to be tough, too. It would be wrong to slacken our efforts at the first vague signs of an easing of price pressures. We have to ensure that high inflation actually ends.