As regards the economic effects, the recent crisis concerning Ukraine and the consequent imposition of sanctions on and by Russia has so far had limited spillover effects on the euro area economy, either via trade or financial links. However, the Baltic states and Finland are more likely to feel any negative effects than other euro area economies owing to the strong trade ties they have with their eastern neighbours. But on the economic risks, I would like to add that the European “family” provides safety nets to partly offset the negative effects of geopolitical tensions related to Russia and Ukraine. For instance, the European Commission announced support measures to protect food producers affected by Russia’s food embargo. The euro area is a large market that can help Lithuanian producers to make up for losses from the Russian market. Finally, euro area countries can use the emergency liquidity lines provided in euro by their national central banks, which in turn would receive euro liquidity from the Eurosystem, in the event of significant turbulences in the financial sector. Why is lending to the real economy in the euro area sluggish? What else needs to be done in addition to the mix of different measures that the ECB is applying, such as low interest rates (or negative interest rates for bank deposits at the ECB) and the planned asset-backed securities programme? It is true that credit dynamics remain weak. At the same time, recent trends show some positive changes.
There are clear risks in sight: in particular, heightened geopolitical tensions could dampen business and consumer confidence. Furthermore, the risk of insufficient structural reforms could weigh on the business environment. How can this uncomfortable cocktail of high unemployment (11.5% this July) and ultra-low inflation in the euro area (0.3% in August, i.e. far below the ECB’s target of below, but close to, 2%) be overcome? How, if at all, can Europe avoid a stagnation scenario such as that faced by the Japanese economy for decades? We do not see Japanese-style deflation in the euro area, as a number of factors differ distinctly from Japan in the 1990s. Firstly, we, the ECB, took decisive action at a very early stage in the crisis, and have continued to do so. Most recently, against the backdrop of a persistently weak inflation outlook, slowing growth momentum and subdued monetary and credit dynamics, we decided in early September to adopt a number of additional monetary policy initiatives which will complete and complement the measures already announced in June. On the basis of our current information, we expect inflation to remain at low levels, before gradually increasing during 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, while inflation expectations have declined, particularly at shorter maturities, our measures will underpin the firm anchoring of inflation expectations in line with our aim of maintaining inflation rates below, but close to, 2%.