The key element is confidence. Confidence in growth, confidence in stability, and confidence in the future of the euro area. Only by building confidence can we turn the ongoing cyclical recovery into a robust, structural recovery. The role of the ECB The ECB has a central role to play in supporting confidence.
We do that by fulfilling our price stability mandate: an inflation rate of below, but close, to 2%. To that end we launched last year our asset purchase programme, or APP, to put inflation on a path back towards 2%. And last December we decided to recalibrate the APP to secure that path.