First, net asset purchases remain necessary for now to validate the stimulus that is already priced into key indices of financial conditions and on which the inflation path depends. Thereafter, when progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation is judged to be sufficient, net purchases will come to an end.
At that point, next to our forward guidance, appropriate financial conditions will be maintained by our reinvestment policy. Re-investments will ensure a continued presence in the market, long after net asset purchases expire. The cumulative redemptions under the asset purchase programme between March 2018 and February 2019 are expected to be around EUR 167 billion. And reinvestment amounts will remain sizeable thereafter.