In the following months we took the decision to reinforce our credit easing measures and to expand our asset purchase programme. That decision reflected the very difficult situation the euro area found itself in late last year.
After a promising start in the spring of 2014, the economic recovery had faltered in the summer and, as the year drew to a close, we feared a renewed lapse into recession. This would have come at a time when inflation was falling and inflation expectations were already clearly destabilised. Our price stability objective was under threat.