Underlying these challenges is the fact that the world is becoming more interconnected and interdependent. Conferences such as today’s forum will present useful meeting grounds to exchange information, establish new networks and to lay the foundations for regional cooperation and mutual learning. On this note, I wish you a successful conference. Thank you. BIS Review 60/2008  3
The rotation from the asset purchase programme to forward guidance on rates At our June monetary policy meeting, we initiated a rotation of our policy instruments from the asset purchase programme towards more conventional instruments of monetary policy – the policy interest rates and forward guidance on their likely evolution. We expressed our anticipation of a gradual winding-down of net asset purchases, subject to incoming data confirming our outlook for inflation. And we updated and enhanced our forward guidance on the path for interest rates, which is now expressed in terms of the expectation that key ECB interest rates will remain at their present levels “at least through the summer of 2019 and, in any case, for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term”. In addition, we re-affirmed our intention to reinvest principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the APP “for an extended period of time after the end of our net asset purchases and, in any case, for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation”. This combination of policy measures aimed to preserve the degree of monetary accommodation that is necessary to ensure sustained convergence of inflation towards our aim. Clearly, the end of net asset purchases is not tantamount to a withdrawal of monetary policy accommodation.