In conclusion, as Stanley Fischer, the Fed’s Vice Chair, noted in his speech last February that QE programmes coupled with increasingly explicit forward guidance have reduced the unemployment rate by 1–1.25 percentage points and increased the inflation rate by half a percentage point, relative to what would have occurred in the absence of these policies.
Pending the appointment by the Council, Danièle Nouy will become the Chair of the Supervisory Board as of 1 January 2014. She will then also become your primary interlocutor with regard to the SSM. Today, I will first review recent economic and monetary developments in the euro area.