BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Low inflation and the impossibility of pushing nominal interest rates significantly below zero meant that there was little scope for lowering real interest rates and easing credit conditions by conventional means.
Following these rules, the ECB has fully played its role as the central bank of Greece, continuously increasing its liquidity provision to Greek banks to ensure that they can serve the real economy. What we cannot do is fund the government, for example by refinancing Greek banks’ purchases of Tbills at a time when the Hellenic Republic does not have market access.