Lagarde comments at ECB press conference
ATHENS (Reuters) — The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged as expected on Thursday, snapping an unprecedented streak of 10 consecutive rate hikes, and maintained its guidance which signals steady policy ahead.
Following are highlights of ECB President Christine Lagarde's comments at a news conference after the policy meeting, which was held in Athens.
ITALY
«In addition to our response we also have to make sure that there's proper transmission of our monetary policy throughout the whole euro area and to all countries in the euro area.
»And we have all the adequate tools in order to make sure that that happens."
NO REGRETS IN FIRST HALF OF ECB TERM
Asked if there was anything she regretted about the first half of her eight-year mandate as ECB president, Lagarde said: «Rest assured that I have no regret. I am not going to sing it to you, but there is a famous French singer that has done that much better than I could ever to do. So no regret.»
PRICE STABILITY
«Our mission is price stability we have defined it in our strategy review as 2% we're not at 2%. The best tools that we can use to return inflation to 2% are interest rates and this is what we're using and I just want to mention that the fact that we're holding doesn't mean to say that we will never hike again.»
MONETARY POLICY PURPOSE
Asked about potential monetary policy-related losses among euro zone central banks:
«There is no one-size-fits-all… What I know is that as a euro system and as the ECB we have one mission which is price stability. And we don't have as a purpose to show profits or to cover losses, and it would be actually wrong if our decisions were guided by our p&l (profit and loss) accounts rather than for monetary policy purposes in
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