In this respect, the challenge remains for banks to adjust the size and structure of their balance sheets while ensuring the availability of credit to the non-financial sector. To address this challenge, banks should use the improved funding conditions to strengthen their capital bases further and, where necessary, take full advantage of government support measures for recapitalisation.
This is important to facilitate access to finance, especially for those enterprises that do not have recourse to market-based financing. To sum up, the current key ECB interest rates remain appropriate. Taking into account all the information and analyses that have become available since our meeting on 14 January 2010, price developments are expected to remain subdued over the policy-relevant horizon.