Mario Draghi: IMFC Statement Statement by Mr Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, at the thirty-third meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, Washington DC, 15 April 2016. *  *  *  The euro area economy is continuing on a path of gradual recovery, notwithstanding an external environment characterised by some further deceleration in economic growth and occasional bouts of financial volatility. But the outlook for euro area growth remains faced with uncertainty, mainly as a result of downside risks to growth prospects in emerging market economies, a clouded outlook for oil prices and their economic implications, and also geopolitical risks. Given the new risks to the outlook for inflation, as well as the materialisation of some of the existing ones, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank has adopted a comprehensive package of monetary policy measures to further ease financing conditions in the euro area, stimulate bank lending and thereby reinforce the momentum of the euro area’s economic recovery and accelerate the return of inflation to levels below, but close to, 2%. In order to reap the full benefits of these monetary policy measures, decisive implementation of structural reforms and greater progress towards sustainable and more growth-friendly public finances is necessary. Such a combination of policy actions will not only lead to higher sustainable growth but will also make the euro area more resilient to global shocks.
Effectively implementing the enhanced governance framework, completing the banking union, and building a capital markets union to reduce risk and to allow for more private risk-sharing while establishing additional public risk- sharing mechanisms in parallel are some of the key near-term requirements in this regard. In the longer run, a more perfect EMU will form the basis for a stable, flourishing euro area economy that will not only enable the euro area to tackle challenges in other policy areas, but that will also be to the benefit of global economic and financial stability. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3