But the ECB can ensure that, for as long as inflation is below our aim, the financing conditions remain in place for the transmission of monetary policy to work via public and private spending. To do so successfully, we need to clearly understand what stage of the pandemic we are in.
The economic outlook is improving, but we are not yet out of the pandemic phase. The shock caused by the pandemic was of an exceptional magnitude and has not yet been fully reabsorbed. Monetary policy is still playing a critical role in anchoring the yield curve (Chart 9).