There is much agreement that price stability should remain the overriding goal of monetary policy. This reflects the view that the financial crisis was not principally caused by monetary policy but rather by weaknesses in the financial system.15 Furthermore, high inflation is costly and there is no exploitable trade-off between inflation and growth.
Let me briefly report on developments since the last meeting of the Governing Council before turning to our more general assessment. As regards the first pillar of our monetary policy strategy, no new data on monetary developments have become available since 5 October. Turning to the second pillar, oil prices and exchange rates remained two important factors under examination.