The high risk that nonetheless characterizes the bank’s activity made it advisable for it to fund its loans primarily with public contributions and the bank’s own resources, part of which was paid in by the beneficiaries of its lending.
However, it is important to emphasise that we do not interpret the reference value as an intermediate target. The ECB does not attempt to control monetary growth at a specific horizon. Rather, the reference value represents an analytical tool, which constitutes a benchmark that can act as a starting point for policy discussion.