This increases our margin of manoeuvre to reduce economic volatility and to better ensure the overall objective of non inflationary growth. The Eurosystem, as the central bank of the euro area, is now recognised as a credible institution and the euro as a robust and reliable currency.
Markets and economic agents in general have learned to understand the underlying framework of our monetary policy with the important result that we have become a more predictable institution. This implies that we can better manage expectations and implement monetary policy while maintaining smooth functioning of money markets. At the same time, throughout this period, monetary policy has been supportive of economic activity.