ECB Press Releases

331,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in the first half of 2017Around 85% of the counterfeits were €20 and €50 banknotesAll euro banknotes can be verified using the “feel, look and tilt” methodEuro banknotes continue to be a trusted and safe means of paymentSome 331,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in the first half of 2017, a decrease compared with the second half of 2016. The likelihood of receiving a counterfeit is thus very...

HICP inflation expectations have been revised downwards for 2017, 2018 and 2019. Longer-term HICP inflation expectations remain unchanged at 1.8%.Expectations for HICP excluding food and energy have been revised upwards for 2017, but remained unchanged for forecast horizons further out.Real GDP growth expectations have been revised upwards for 2017, 2018 and 2019.Unemployment rate expectations have been revised downwards.Respondents to the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) for the...

July 2017Market operationsLegal acts on the implementation of the Eurosystem monetary policy frameworkOn 22 March 2017 the Governing Council decided to remove the eligibility of wind-down entities as Eurosystem monetary policy counterparties. The Governing Council also decided that a wind-down entity that was accepted as an eligible counterparty on 22 March 2017 would remain eligible until 31 December 2021, with the limitation that its access to Eurosystem credit operations would be capped at...

Mario Draghi, President of the ECB,Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB,Frankfurt am Main, 20 July 2017Jump to the transcript of the questions and answersLadies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key...

At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. The Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the...

Loan growth continues to be supported by increasing demand across all loan categoriesEasing credit standards on loans to enterprises and on loans to households for house purchaseContinued easing of credit terms and conditions across all loan categoriesEasing impact from TLTROs on credit terms and conditions and on credit standards Credit standards for loans to enterprises eased slightly in net terms in the second quarter of 2017, according to the July 2017 euro area bank lending survey (BLS)....

Speech by Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Foreign Exchange Contact Group meeting, 11 July 2017Large-scale asset purchase programmes have become an integral part of the set of unconventional tools central banks use to achieve their domestic objectives.[1] When faced with negative output gaps and policy interest rates approaching their effective lower bound, these programmes have given central banks an essential tool to continue providing additional monetary...

Speech by Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Foreign Exchange Contact Group meeting, 11 July 2017Large-scale asset purchase programmes have become an integral part of the set of unconventional tools central banks use to achieve their domestic objectives.[1] When faced with negative output gaps and policy interest rates approaching their effective lower bound, these programmes have given central banks an essential tool to continue providing additional monetary...

Little overall change in credit terms for secured funding Less favourable non-price credit terms for non-cleared OTC derivatives Worsened liquidity in domestic government bond market Survey respondents reported that, on balance, credit terms offered in both securities financing and over-the –counter (OTC) derivatives transactions over the three-month reference period ending in May 2017 remained basically unchanged. The dispersion of responses, however, increased compared with the March 2017...

Little overall change in credit terms for secured funding Less favourable non-price credit terms for non-cleared OTC derivatives Worsened liquidity in domestic government bond market Survey respondents reported that, on balance, credit terms offered in both securities financing and over-the –counter (OTC) derivatives transactions over the three-month reference period ending in May 2017 remained basically unchanged. The dispersion of responses, however, increased compared with the March 2017...