It is against this background that the Governing Council kept the level of key ECB interest rates unchanged earlier this month, regarding the current level as appropriate. The significant monetary impulse stemming from our interest rate reductions last year has spread to market interest rates, and the transmission to rates charged by banks to households and corporations has continued to perform well.
Since 2003, China has introduced a series of macroeconomic management measures in response to over-investment in certain sectors of the economy with the result that the unstable and unhealthy factors in the economy have been curbed. Based on updated statistics, the growth of money supply slowed in August, with all intermediate targets for monetary policy lower than expected at the beginning of the year.