Price stability in the context of a gradual economic recovery  Our first and permanent challenge is, of course, the attainment of the ECB’s primary objective: the maintenance of price stability in the euro area. Over the past five years, the ECB, together with the NCBs in the Eurosystem, has succeeded in delivering low inflation.
Real government consumption expenditure also rose further mainly on account of the acquisition of another corvette. Preliminary indications for the second quarter of 2004 are that growth in real gross domestic expenditure probably remained fairly strong. Solid consumer confidence and buoyant retail trade sales point towards this conclusion, as well as a quarter-on-quarter rate of increase of 3,6 per cent in new vehicle sales.