The Governing Council complemented this measure on the liquidity side with the decision to continue the fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until December 2016. In addition, we decided to suspend the weekly fine-tuning operations sterilising the liquidity injected under the Securities Markets Programme, which was discontinued two years ago.
These measures mutually reinforce each other. Together, they also underpin our forward guidance that key ECB interest rates will remain at present levels for an extended period of time. To understand better the Governing Council’s most recent decisions, one has to understand the particular challenges that we, as monetary policy makers, are currently facing in the euro area.