Let me express the Vice-President's and my own best wishes to you all for the New Year. We will now report on the outcome of today's meeting of the Governing Council of the ECB, which was also attended by the President of the ECOFIN Council, Mr McCreevy, and Commissioner Solbes.
Following our regular economic and monetary analysis, we continue to judge the current stance of monetary policy as appropriate to preserve price stability over the medium term. Accordingly, we have decided to leave the key ECB interest rates unchanged at their low levels. The available indicators point to an ongoing economic recovery in the euro area. This assessment has not fundamentally changed.