At that time, ten governments in the euro area out of 12 and many international observers asked the ECB to leave its key rates unchanged. International financial institutions, in particular, highlighted the risks that the tightening of monetary policy – after a prolonged period of accommodative monetary policy – could pose to the recovery.
Despite these warnings, we conducted our monetary tightening, and international financial institutions have agreed that we were right to make that decision. After the crisis escalated in mid-September 2008, while inflationary pressures subsided, we decided, in full accordance with our mandate, to reduce our key interest rate. We cut it rapidly, from 4.25% in October 2008 to 1% in May 2009.