Dieses Thema wird in den nächsten Monaten gewiss noch weiter an Bedeutung gewinnen. Economic and monetary developments Since my previous appearance before the European Parliament on 8 December the economic outlook in the euro area has continued to weaken and inflation has declined further. In December 2008 the inflation rate stood at 1.6%. Moreover, inflationary pressures and inflationary risks have continued to diminish.
Looking ahead, with the appropriate medium-term perspective for monetary policy and taking also into account our own policy decisions including the most recent one, we expect euro area inflation to remain in line with our definition of price stability over the policy-relevant horizon. Risks to price stability over the medium term are broadly balanced in the view of the Governing Council of the ECB.