Euro area lending rates to businesses are near all-time lows. Our estimates, as well as responses by banks to our bank lending survey, indicate that the TLTROs have helped compress these lending rates, which means that banks are passing on the favourable conditions of our lending operations to their customers.
Since 1993, Latvia has been using the exchange rate based stabilisation programme. In February 1994, the Bank of Latvia pegged the national currency to the SDR basket. We based our decision on the belief that a fixed exchange rate regime, if it is durable and credible, reduces uncertainty, eliminates currency risk and provides businesses with a sound basis for planning and pricing.