Needless to say, the basic mechanism of monetary easing consists of driving the real interest rate below the natural rate of interest, thereby stimulating economic activity. Amid a decline in the natural rate of interest, the Bank reduced the policy interest rate incrementally, in pursuit of monetary easing effects.
18 Ampudia, M., Georgarakos, D., Slacalek, J., Tristani, O., Vermeulen, P. and Violante, G. (2018), “Monetary policy  and household inequality”, Working Paper Series, No 2170, ECB; see also K Adam and P Tzamourani (2016), “Distributional consequences of asset price inflation in the euro area”, European Economic Review, Vol. 89, pp. 172–192.