We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. HICP inflation rates have declined further, as anticipated, and are expected to fall below 2% in the coming months. Over the policy-relevant horizon, inflationary pressures should remain contained.
The underlying pace of monetary expansion continues to be subdued. Medium to longer-term inflation expectations for the euro area remain firmly anchored in line with our aim of maintaining inflation rates below, but close to, 2%. Overall, this allows our monetary policy stance to remain accommodative. The economic weakness in the euro area is expected to prevail in the early part of 2013.