But the subdued inflation outlook, as well as other headwinds to the euro area recovery, stemming from, for instance, subdued bank credit, required a more comprehensive policy package. So in the summer of 2014 we launched a complex package of policy measures that were to be adopted in a sequential and state-contingent manner as economic conditions evolved.
Given the essential interaction between policy tools in their transmission to the economy, the ECB accompanied the expanded asset purchase programme that it announced in January 2015 with an adjustment to the forward guidance framework, moving from a previously singular focus on policy rates to a dual approach combining and integrating the different elements of guidance on policy rates and asset purchases (see Figure 8).7 Communication about the intended horizon of net asset purchases and the expected future path of policy rates has been a key component of our policy strategy.