Mario Draghi: The state and prospects of the euro area recovery Speech by Mr Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, at the European Banking Congress, Frankfurt am Main, 18 November 2016. * * * Since the onset of the global financial crisis, 2016 has been the first full year where GDP in the euro area has been above its pre-crisis level.
During the same period, the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI including energy has declined, which can be attributed mainly to an increase in the negative contribution of energy items.