After a promising start in the spring of 2014, the economic recovery had faltered in the summer and, as the year drew to a close, we feared a renewed lapse into recession. This would have come at a time when inflation was falling and inflation expectations were already clearly destabilised. Our price stability objective was under threat.
Today, the economic recovery is on a firmer footing. Domestic demand is gradually strengthening and replacing exports as the engine of growth. Consumption continues to be the main driver of real activity. And while global trade slowed remarkably in the first half of 2015, euro area export growth has held up relatively well.