Second, the return of inflation into that range has to be durable, that is not only transitional. Third, and this is rather self-evident, this development must hold for the euro-area average and not just for individual countries.
Fourth and finally, the convergence of inflation has to be self-sustained in the sense that inflation will return to the area consistent with our definition of price stability and will remain there even when the current level of monetary policy support is withdrawn. This last condition clearly requires an estimate of how much the asset purchase programme is contributing to current and future inflation.