As far as our monetary policy decisions are concerned, they depend on our medium-term assessment of the risks to price stability and are based on our two-pillar strategy, which enables us to cross-check developments in the money, credit and financial markets with the signals provided by economic analysis.
Given existing upward inflationary pressures from oil and other commodity prices and the associated likelihood of second-round effects, euro area monetary policy was until recently faced with predominantly upward risks to price stability.