The Governing Council concluded that recent developments are in line with the interest rate decisions taken in the course of last year. We have therefore decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We also confirmed that the current level of key ECB interest rates remains appropriate for the maintenance of price stability over the medium term.
Starting with the analysis under the first pillar of our monetary policy strategy, the three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3 rose to 7.4% in the period from September to November 2001, from 6.7% in the period from August to October.