Accordingly, we reduced the key ECB interest rates and reaffirmed our forward guidance, indicating that interest rates would stay at present levels for an extended period of time in the euro area, while being aware that they were bound to increase in other regions during this time;    The second contingency was a further weakening in the transmission of our monetary policy stance, originating from an impaired bank lending channel.
The June 2009 Eurosystem staff  BIS Review 72/2009  1  macroeconomic projections for the euro area, which have just been published, are in line with this overall assessment. They are based on the assumption that the global economy outside the euro area will contract by 1.6% this year grow and by 2.1% in 2010. Nonetheless, the economic prospects remain fraught with uncertainty.