That is, negative rates are in our bag of tools, but may or may not be deployed depending on the economic landscape. This applies to all other tools and measures that I mentioned before as well. In this context, our monetary policy strategy provides the necessary flexibility to react to different economic and market constellations.
The second component of the strategy which helps in times when expectations become disoriented is the agility of action in the management of the money market combined with a measured, medium-term oriented approach to the reassessment of the stance. The latter ensures that the ECB keeps – and communicates – a sense of direction when markets are gripped by a sudden loss of confidence.