I am confident that if we persevere with our monetary policy stance we will be able to pull inflation down to single digits by the end of this year. As inflation falls during the course of this year, it will be possible to start reduce interest rates gradually.
*  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning and you are all very welcome to this ninth conference of the European Central Bank and the Centre for Financial Studies research network on Capital Markets and Financial Integration in Europe.