Adding to the three roles of the central bank that I have just mentioned regarding the Lehman shock, there are a few facts and lessons to be learned with respect to the European debt crisis regarding the relations and interactions between the central bank and markets, governments, and society at large. The first is the importance of fiscal prudence.
As price stability is the ECB’s primary objective according to its mandate, the Governing Council judged that stabilising medium- and long-term inflation expectations is its highest priority; hence, it kept the interest rates unchanged. Thus, the minimum bid rate on the main refinancing operations remains at 4%.