But first, I would again like to stress the point I made on this occasion one year ago. It would be wrong to benchmark the monetary policy decisions against the central bank’s profit or loss. The sole benchmark is whether our monetary policy succeeds in preserving price stability. And as far as this is concerned, we are on the right track.
If the upturn continues and prices rise accordingly, I see no reason why the ECB Governing Council should not end the net asset purchases in the current year. 7 Conclusion and handover to Mr Thiele With that, I will now hand over to Mr Thiele, who will provide you with more details on the annual accounts.