There is broad consensus that central banks’ main responsibility is to preserve price stability and that they also have an important role to play in promoting financial stability. The ECB’s objectives are clearly laid out in the Treaty. The primary objective is to maintain price stability.
While short-term HICP inflation rates remain subject to certain volatilities, particularly in relation to oil prices, there is no significant evidence of underlying domestic inflationary pressures building up in the euro area. Accordingly, we have left the key ECB interest rates unchanged at their historically low levels. However, upside risks to price stability over the medium term remain.