BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Why did ECB President Mario Draghi decide to proceed even further with the above expansionary monetary policy, eleven months after the initiation of the program? 2. The current economic outlook of the euro area  The answer to the above question lies in the euro area economic outlook.
  Core inflation fell to 0.8% in February (flash estimate), down from 1.0% in January. According to ECB forecasts in March 2016, inflation in the euro area is now projected to be at a very low level (0.1%) on an annual average basis in 2016, before rebounding to 1.3% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018.