But overall inflation developments, despite the solid growth, have remained subdued. Accordingly, while we remain confident that inflation developments will eventually return to levels below, but close to, 2%, our medium-term objective, the evidence still shows insufficient progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation towards those levels.
Such “sustained adjustment” is the principal contingency that has guided and will be guiding the introduction and withdrawal of our asset purchase programme (APP) and, indirectly, of all the main components of our present policy.