Investment however remains well below its pre-crisis levels and its sensitivity to the borrowing conditions faced by companies is lower than historical norms. According to the September ECB staff macroeconomic projections, annual real GDP growth is expected to increase by 1.7% this year, and by 1.6% in each of the next two years.
Turning to price developments, headline inflation increased in October to 0.5% in year-on-year terms, owing to a continued increase in annual energy inflation. So although price dynamics are improving, inflation remains at low levels – far below the level which we consider consistent with our price stability objective – reflecting past declines in oil prices and weak wage growth.