This facility, which is backstop-priced, is designed to enhance the provision of liquidity via the standing US dollar swap line arrangements between six major central banks. The take-up so far has been very limited, which is, of course, good news as banks can readily meet USD funding needs in the market. 3.
Inflation and implications for monetary policy 3.1 Inflation remains much too high Now, let me turn to the actual topic of my speech: inflation. At almost 9%, Germany's headline inflation rate [HICP] last year was one of the highest since the foundation of the Federal Republic. February's rate of 9.3% –while lower than in the months before – is still far too high.