 our press conference. I'm joined here on stage by President Lagarde, Vice President Degindos. My name is Wolfgang Preusel. We are also joined by journalists on Webex. As always, if you want to ask a question, please turn on your camera and also the microphones. And with that, I'd like to hand over to President Lagarde. Please. Thank you, Wolfgang, and good afternoon to all of you. The Vice President and I welcome you to our press conference. Inflation continues to decline, but is still expected to remain too high for too long. We are determined to ensure that inflation returns to our 2% medium-term target in a timely manner. The governing council therefore today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. The rate increase today reflects our assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission. The developments since our last meeting support our expectation that inflation will drop further over the remainder of the year, but will stay above target for an extended period. While some measures show signs of easing, underlying inflation remains high overall. Our past rate increases continue to be transmitted forcefully, financing conditions have tightened again, and are increasingly dampening demand, which is an important factor in bringing inflation back to target. Our future decisions will ensure that the key ECB interest rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary to achieve a timely return of inflation to our 2% medium-term target. We will continue to follow a data-dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction. In particular, our interest rate decisions will continue to be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook in light of the incoming economic and financial data, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission. We also decided to set the remuneration of minimum reserves at 0%. This decision will preserve the effectiveness of monetary policy by maintaining the current degree of control over the monetary policy stance and ensuring the full pass-through of our interest rate decisions to money markets. At the same time, it will improve the efficiency of monetary policy by reducing the overall amount of interest that needs to be paid on reserves in order to implement the appropriate stance. The decisions taken today are set out in a press release that is available on our website. The details of the change to the remuneration of minimum reserves are provided in a separate press release to be published at 3.45 continental European time. I will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing, and will then explain our assessment of financial and monetary conditions. Looking at the economic activity first, the near-term economic outlook for the euro area has deteriorated, owing largely to weaker domestic demand. High inflation and tighter financing conditions are dampening spending. This is weighing especially on manufacturing output, which is also being held down by weak external demand. Housing and business investment are showing signs of weakness as well. Services remain more resilient, especially in contact intensive sub-sectors such as tourism. But momentum is slowing in the service sector. The economy is expected to remain weak in the short run. Over time, falling inflation, rising incomes and improving supply conditions should support the recovery. The labour market remains robust. The unemployment rate stayed at its historical low of 6.5% in May, and many new jobs are being created, especially in the services sector. At the same time, forward-looking indicators suggest that this trend might slow down in the coming months and may turn negative for manufacturing. As the energy crisis fades, governments should roll back the related support measures promptly and in a concerted manner. This is essential to avoid driving up medium-term inflationary pressures, which would otherwise call for a stronger monetary policy response. We welcome the recent Eurogroup statement on the Euroarea fiscal stance, which is consistent with this assessment. Fiscal policies should be designed to make our economy more productive and to gradually bring down high public debt. Policies to enhance the Euroarea's supply capacity can help reduce price pressures in the medium term while supporting the green transition, which is also being furthered by the next generation EU programme. The reform of the EU's economic governance framework should be conducted before, sorry, concluded before the end of this year. Let's look at inflation. Inflation came down further in June, reaching 5.5% after 6.1% in May. Energy prices fell again, dropping by 5.6% year on year. Food price inflation continued to slow but remained high at 11.6%. Inflation excluding energy and food edged up to 5.5% in June with goods and services following diverging trends. Goods inflation decreased further to 5.5% from 5.8% in May. Conversely, services inflation rose to 5.4% from 5% in May, owing to robust spending on holidays and travel and also reflecting upward base effects. The drivers of inflation are changing. External sources of inflation are easing. By contrast, domestic price pressures, including from rising wages and still robust profit margins are becoming an increasingly important driver of inflation. While some measures are moving lower, underlying inflation remains high overall, including owing to the persistent impact of past energy price increases on economy-wide prices. Although most measures of longer-term inflation expectations currently stand at around 2%, some indicators remain elevated and need to be monitored closely. Turning now to our risk assessment. The outlook for economic growth and inflation remains highly uncertain. Downside risks to growth include Russia's unjustified war against Ukraine and an increase in broader geopolitical tensions, which could fragment global trade and thus weigh on the euro area economy. Growth could also be slower if the effects of monetary policy are more forceful than expected or if the world economy weakens and thereby dampens demand for euro area exports. Conversely, growth could be higher than projected if the strong labor market rising real incomes and receding uncertainty mean that people and business become more confident and decide to spend more. Upside risks to inflation include potential renewed upward pressures on the costs of energy and food, also related to Russia's unilateral withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Adverse weather conditions in light of the unfolding climate crisis may push up food prices by more than projected. A lasting rise in inflation expectations above our target or higher than anticipated increases in wages or profit margins could also drive inflation higher, including over the medium term. By contrast, weaker demand, for example, owing to a stronger transmission of monetary policy, would lead to lower price pressures, especially over the medium term. Moreover, inflation would come down faster if declining energy prices and lower food price increases were to pass through to the prices of other goods and services more quickly than currently anticipated. Let's look at the financial and monetary conditions. Our monetary policy tightening continues to be transmitted strongly to broader financing conditions. Risk-free interest rates over short to medium term maturities have increased since our last meeting and funding has become more expensive for banks, in part owing to the ongoing phasing out of the ECB's targeted longer term refinancing operations known as Teltro. The large Teltro repayment in June went smoothly as banks were well prepared. Average landing rates for business loans and mortgages rose again in May to 4.6% and 3.6% respectively. Higher borrowing rates and the associated cuts in spending plans led to a further sharp drop in credit demand in the second quarter, as reported in our latest bank lending survey. Moreover, credit standards for loans to firms and households tightened further, as banks are becoming more concerned about the risks faced by their customers and are less willing to bear these risks. Tighter financing conditions are also making housing less affordable and less attractive as an investment and demand for mortgages has dropped for the fifth quarter in a row. Against this background, the annual growth rate of lending continued to decrease in June, falling to 3% for firms and 1.7% for households, with annualized growth rates of 0% and minus 0.2% in the second quarter respectively. Amid weak lending and the reduction in the Euro system balance sheet, the annual growth rate of broad money fell to 0.6% in June, with an annualized growth rate of minus 1.1% in the second quarter. To conclude, inflation continues to decline, but is still expected to remain too high for too long. The Governing Council therefore today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. Our future decisions will ensure that the key ECB interest rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary to achieve a timely return of inflation to our 2% medium-term target. We will continue to follow a data dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction. In particular, our interest rate decisions will continue to be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook in light of the incoming economic and financial data, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission. In any case, we stand ready to adjust all of our instruments within our mandate to ensure that inflation returns to our medium-term target and to preserve the smooth functioning of monetary policy transmission. We are now ready to take your questions. Thank you. Thank you, President Lagarde. And the first question goes to Janna Rando of Bloomberg News. Janna, please. Good afternoon, Madam President. Good afternoon. Two questions, as always. Does the absence of guidance for September, I assume you expected such a question, mean the Governing Council is equally open to another hike, to a pause, or even to the conclusion that rates have already reached their peak? That will be the first and the second one. I'm wondering how much of your decision on lowering the remuneration of minimum reserves has been, or how much of that was driven by concerns over central bank losses? Thank you. Thank you very much for your two questions. You know what, let me just remind you what we have been doing. And I'll come to your interest, which is what happens next. But let me just remind you what we're doing and what we have been doing. We are raising interest rates, all three rates, by 25 basis points. And this is the ninth decision to hike that has been taken in a matter of one year. So invariably, one meeting after the other, we have raised rates. The DFR is now at 375. And this decision that was unanimously agreed amongst all members of the Governing Council is driven by one key determination, which is to bring inflation to target, our target, which is medium term inflation. There is unanimous determination to do so. What have we decided as well? And I'll come to your minimum remuneration because that was your second question. We have also decided, and I'm going to quote because it's a sentence that you might hear over and over, not this time, next time and future times. We say, our future decisions will ensure that the key ECB interest rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary to achieve a timely return of inflation to our 2% medium term target. So some of you may have noticed a slight change of verb. And that is not just random or irrelevant. And I think it's predicated on our determination to be data dependent. So I have said on many occasions that we had ground to cover or we have more ground to cover. What I'm saying here is that data and our assessment of data will actually tell us whether and how much ground we have to cover. So we are deliberately data dependent and we have an open mind as to what the decisions will be in September and in subsequent meetings because this determination based on data might vary from one month to the other. So we might hike and we might hold. And what is decided in September is not definitive. It may vary from one meeting to the other. So I hope it's very clear that we are not in the domain of forward guidance. But we are very strongly rooted in our determination to break the back of inflation and to take inflation back to 2% medium term on a sustainable basis. And to do that we will be informed by data. We will analyze the data and we will then decide at that point in time. We will have the inflation outlook. We will have two readings of inflation with all the underlying dissection and understanding of it. And we will have even more understanding of our monetary policy transmission. And that will be repeated every governing council after every governing council so that we can make sure that as I said we break the back of inflation. Now on your second question. Our primary job is to set monetary policy so that inflation stabilizes at 2% over the medium term. No dispute about that. But we also have a public duty to make the implementation of our monetary policy as efficient as possible. So by cutting the remuneration on minimum reserves only, that's the basis that we will use, cutting it to zero, we will reduce the amount of interest that we pay, which means the implementation of our policy is going to be more efficient. At the same time it is going to have no impact on our policy stance, which is currently determined by the remuneration, not on minimum reserves, on excess reserves, which as you know are far plenty than the minimum reserves. So that's the decision that we made. More efficiency and that's also of course predicated on the principle of proportionality. Thank you, President. And the next question goes to Annette Weisbach of CNBC. Annette, please. Thank you very much for taking my question. I have a question on the discussion concerning the time lag of monetary policy decisions and the effect it will have on inflation because you have of course tightened at a record pace now and there are discussions that one first has to wait a little bit until to really see the materialization of those rate hikes. So how are discussions going on that front? And then I would like to know whether you have discussed accelerating the shrinking of your balance sheet and if not, whether this could be a topic for the so-called second half of the year. Thank you. Thank you very much for your two questions. I'll take the second one. We have not discussed the reduction of our balance sheets and we have obviously acknowledged that the balance sheet has reduced and it has reduced as a result of number one, the reimbursement of more than what was expected to be reimbursed under the teltro reimbursement in June and also by the fact that we have not only stopped net asset purchases but we have stopped any reinvestment. So the balance sheet of the ECB is reducing as a result of that but we have not discussed any further reduction at this point. On your other question, as you know, transmission of monetary policy is one of the three metrics that we use in order to determine our monetary policy stance, the strength of monetary policy transmission. And we look at it that way. We see it as essentially a two leg process. The first leg is transmission to financing at large. What is the impact on lending, lending for banks, lending by banks to both corporates and households? And we try to measure that as accurately as possible by looking at volumes of loans, by looking at rates, by looking at obviously the bank lending survey that many of you have commented yesterday, which informs us about what banks anticipate and in which area and which directions they expect to either increase or reduce the volume of loans and reassess their risks in relation to borrowers. So that's the first leg and there are clear indications that our monetary policy is transmitted through that channel. The next one, which is the second leg, is transmission to the economy. And from financing to the economy, how quickly does that move? How efficient is it? And we are really beginning to see now transmission materialising whether you look at investment in housing, whether you look at investment altogether, there is obviously a decline on those two accounts. Still too early and there is certainly more in the pipeline, but we are definitely seeing monetary policy being transmitted and being transmitted strongly. That's obviously the case for the first leg and it is also now beginning to be the case in the second one. Thank you, President. And the next question goes to Francesco Canepa of Reuters. Francesco, please. Good afternoon. So at the last meeting you said that you were not even thinking about pausing. Would you repeat that today? The second question is, would you agree with a line that has been repeated by many of your colleagues on the governing council that the risk of doing too little outweighed the risks of doing too much in terms of rate hikes? Mr Canepa, you'll have to understand something which is that I'm not repeating things if prompted. I decide to say what I want to say, okay? So what I just said in response to the first question, I hope was clear, but I'm going to repeat it for you just to make sure that I'm as clear as you would expect. We are moving to a stage where we are going to be data dependent. And we will take the new projection by staff. We're going to take two new readings. We're going to take more information about how transmission is taking place. And on the basis of that, we will determine whether we hike or whether we pause. What I can assure you of is that we're not going to cut. That is a definite no. But on the other side, could be a hike, could be a pause. And if it is a pause, it would not necessarily be for an extended period of time because as I said, it will vary from meeting to meeting because we continue to decide on a meeting by meeting basis every time informed by the data. All right? I hope it is as clear as I can be because we are and that was absolutely endorsed by the governing council which has validated this decision unanimously. We are determined to operate on that basis. Voila. Your second question I've forgotten. You always ask something that I should repeat or that I should endorse, but I'm not doing that. Sorry. You know, if my colleagues take this view or the other, that's fine and they can certainly be free to expand in one way or the other. But I can assure you that on the occasion of today, it was a unanimous determination. And the determination is rooted in one very simple direction, 2%. We want to break the back of inflation. 2% is the goal and we will get there. Come what may. Thank you. Now turning to WebEx. I'd like to give the floor to Fabrizio Goria of La Stampa. Fabrizio, please. Over to you. Thank you. Welcome again. Thank you for Madame Lagarde for this opportunity. I have two questions. Actually, one is on the financial stability. Do you consider the European commercial real estate as a matter of concern? And the second one, can you elaborate more in detail the spiral between wages and prices? Thank you. Thank you a lot. I'm sorry. The second question, you say the spiraling. Yeah, can you elaborate more in detail the dynamics about wages and prices and inflation, basically? So the risk of second-hand effect? Thank you. Yeah, that's correct. Thank you. Will you take the first one? So good afternoon. With respect to commercial real estate, it's quite clear if you look at our financial stability review that we have paid a lot of attention to commercial property and to the declines in prices. These declining prices started even before the tightening of monetary policy. And, you know, the different agents and players that are exposed to commercial property that are mainly non-banks. So it's something that we pay attention to that we have analyzed in the past. And there is a clear, let's say, divide between commercial property and residential property. In the case of residential property, we have not seen any declining prices. What we have seen is a slowdown in the evolution of prices. But commercial property is something that we have paid attention and that will continue paying attention in the future. And on you second question, I think you raised the question of potential risk of second round effect. Let me just take you back for a second because it's a matter that we have reviewed that staff is doing a lot of work on and that we have discussed. It's the role of wage growth and the role of profit margins as two key drivers of inflation, which are gradually eliminating the external causes that were prevalent before. The wage increases is definitely playing an increasing role as a driver of inflation. And so have profit margins. On the profit margins front, we are seeing a slight decline in the first quarter of 23. And as you may remember, our projection is also predicated on the fact that profit margins are wide enough to accommodate the squeeze that will be needed in order to allow for wage increases. But if we look at inflation expectations, if we look at how wages and profit margins are evolving, we are not seeing a second round effect result. And for the moment, at least nothing suggests the risk of strengthening any second round effect. But we are really monitoring that very carefully because as, you know, service inflation is the sort of hard not to crack in terms of inflation, given that on goods, it's going down, energy is coming out and it's negative. Clearly, we're focusing on services that are labor intensive and that are also not as sensitive to interest rates. But we're looking at that very carefully and we'll continue to look at that extremely carefully. Thank you. Madame Lagarde. And the next question goes to Andres Stumpf of Expansion. Andres, please. Thank you. Madam President, regarding the September meeting and the possibility of hiking or housing, as of today, does the burden of the proof fall on an improvement of the inflation outlook? Or would it be enough if it's just the situation does not worsen? And a second question, if I may. Spanish headland inflation is now in line with the mandate and the labor market is as hot as it has been for more than a decade. Is it something like you would like to see for the whole eurozone or is it necessary for the unemployment rate to go up for the ECB to stop hiking? Thank you very much. Do you mind me asking you to repeat what you said about the unemployment rate in Spain? No, it's at the lowest point for more than a decade. Including for young people. Yeah. I was just saying that you would like to see that for the whole eurozone. I mean, the inflation going to go up by 20% and unemployment being low. Or is it just not possible and the labor market has to cool down? I'll start with that one. That new question about Spain. Because it demonstrates the beauty of Europe and the heterogeneity that we have amongst the 20 countries that are members of the euro area. Obviously, the numbers that we see now for Spain with inflation trending towards 2% and hopefully sustainably so. Plus, unemployment numbers that are as low as they have ever been is a good set of numbers for the country and for the economy at large. It is not the same in all member states. And there are member states where inflation is still very high and has been high and is expected to remain high for longer. So we have to be very attentive to the aggregate number. Those are the ones that are driving our inflation outlook, that are helping us determine our policy. But we also have to look at each member states and the characteristics of each member states. We shall see. Data will actually inform us better. But the hope that we have is that inflation will come down to 2% medium term. That is our primary mandate. As you know, we don't have a dual mandate unlike the Fed. And that is what is going to drive our determination. If we can do that with unemployment at the lowest level and staying there, that would be very, very, very good. It is funny because you ask the question of the lawyer. The issue of the burden of proof is very often the lawyer's issue. I think the burden of proof is going to be on the data. Because we are determined to bring inflation back to target. But we are also going to be in the hands of data and the assessment of data. So the burden of proof is going to be on data. Thank you. And the next question goes to Martin Arnold of the Financial Times. Martin, please. Thank you. Madam Lagarde, two questions for you. First of all, how much do you think tighter monetary policy is contributing to the weakness in the Eurozone economy that you identified? And secondly, what would it take in terms of reduction in your growth forecast and a reduction in your inflation forecast in September for you to pause interest rate rises? Thank you. Thank you very much, Martin. What we are working on and what staff is trying to be as detailed, specific and conclusive about is the impact of our monetary policy on inflation. So this is really what is what is the focus and what is driving us. What impact our interest rate hikes have produced and will produce on inflation. And obviously the exercise of producing the inflation outlook that will be conducted in September by ECB staff will be very informative for the governing council to determine how much has been transmitted and what is expected to continue to be transmitted. As I said earlier on to Annette, in the financing leg a lot has been transmitted a lot. We know that in the economy at large, not as much yet. And your second question is totally hypothetical and I understand, you know, why you would want me to answer that question. But it's there are so many data and so much to take on in terms of the projection that will be produced in September that I cannot answer your question in advance. We will really have to see. Thank you. And next question goes to Jean-Philippe Lacour of Agence France Press, AFP, Jean-Philippe, please. Hello, Madame President. You're suggesting a possible pause in rates in the near future. Does that mean that during this period of possible pause, we could see an acceleration of the QT and then it would be like a trade-off among those and hogs at the governing council. Thank you very much, Monsieur Lacour. Our key tool, our key instrument in the current circumstances, given the level of inflation that we have at the moment, is interest rates. So there will be no trade-off between either interest rate or QT. Interest rate is the main tool and the most efficient one. So it's the one that we will be using. There is the possibility of a hike. There is the possibility of a pause. It's a decisive maybe. But, you know, don't expect me to go one way or the other. As I said, the burden of proof is going to be the data. And the ultimate point that we are determined to reach is the 2% inflation. Thank you. Next question goes to Jan Malino for Handelsblatt. Jan, please. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madame Lagarde. You've mentioned that several economic indicators recently have been weaker than expected. And there's some economist warning already that the ECB is overdoing it with rate hikes. And they think that more patients would be necessary. So what's your response on that? And my second question, climate activists criticized that the green bond purchases of the ECB under the new scoring system have largely stopped. Have you perhaps promised too much in terms of what the ECB can contribute to climate protection? Thank you. So we would be doing too much and promising too much. Look, doing too much is certainly not something that we are considering. What we are focusing on is the inflation numbers. We are committed to deliver 2% headline medium term on a sustainable basis in a timely manner. This is our commitment. This is the drive of the governing council. When I look at headline numbers, when I look at core inflation number, when I look at all the many measures of underlying inflation, trying to really isolate the most robust element and removing the most volatile part of it, we are seeing inflation that is still too high and that we project to remain too high for too long. So we have to do what we have to do, which is currently to hike. We know that we are getting closer, but we also know that the options are not on the table to continue to hike or to hold. And we also know that it will vary meeting by meeting because we want to be determined by the data and the analysis and the assessment that we make of the data. It's not surprising that it is transmitting to the financing channel. It is not surprising that there is less investment in housing. It is not surprising that there is less investment all together. This is the intended impact of the monetary policy stance that we have determined. And this is precisely what will return inflation to target. On the other point, have we promised too much? We have promised in our strategy review and subsequent decision, we have promised to be agreement aligned. And obviously, as noticed by all of you and as noticed by Greenpeace as well, we stopped any asset purchases under the asset purchase program because we are no longer reinvesting. So as a result of that under the CSPP, we are not reinvesting. We are letting that portfolio into runoff mode. What we have decided is that we will stick to our commitment to be Paris agreement aligned. And we will in the course of 23 elaborate the means and the ways by which we will be Paris aligned. I just want to remind you, and this is not to distract me for a second from the fight against inflation, but I just want to call your attention to the massive amount of work that is being done in the supervision arm of the ECB in order to really raise the level of awareness and the level of concern by banks and through banks by their clients. And this is really beginning to work. Thank you. Turning back to WebEx, I would like to give the floor to Tom Fairless of the Wall Street Journal. Tom, please. Thanks so much for taking my question, Madam Lagarde. You say that the burden of proof is in the data for future decisions. What data is it that gives you more confidence that you may be able to pause? And what data will you be looking at, especially over the next months, that would stop those rate hikes? Is it core inflation? Is it more that you're looking at the downturn in the eurozone economy and concerns about that? My second question is about the US and the comparison with the eurozone. The US has raised rates significantly more than the ECB for a similar core inflation rate, or even the eurozone core inflation rate is slightly higher. The IMF, your former employer, said this week that the ECB might have more ground to cover. Do you agree? Do you think that there is a suggestion that there might be more work to do in raising rates? Thanks. Thank you, Mr Fairness, for you two questions. What data will be important? All data. And obviously we will be looking at all inflation data. Starting with headline, we will have two readings before our next September Monetary Policy Governing Council. We will look at core inflation, but we will go deeper into underlying inflation numbers to really appreciate and understand what is moving and what is steadily, sustainably moving. We know that some indicators are showing, particularly in goods, it's pretty obvious. You look at producer prices, it's pretty obvious. But when you start looking into services in particular, you have to really dissect those that are energy intensive, those that are interest intensive, those that are, sorry, interest sensitive, what share of labor there is in various segments of services. So we have to look into all that to understand whether the action that we have determined in the last year and a half now is really having a long standing impact that will take inflation back to 2%. Don't forget also that we will be looking at the inflation outlook that will be produced by the ECB, which will give us, again, the expected path of inflation and the readings for 24 and 25, 25 will obviously be very informative for us. We will look at labor numbers, we will look at investment numbers, we will look at just every single parameter of the whole economy of the euro area that we can look at in order to inform ourselves. I know it would be helpful for those who are using the same models that are playing the same exercise to understand from us that there is one particular specific indicator, one particular set of data that prevails over the other. No, it is not the case. We're looking at all of it and expectations are part of the picture as well. The institution that I used to lead, the IMF, has updated its wheel April numbers and I don't think that any of its terribly talented staff would argue with me that inflation in the United States and inflation in Europe are two different beasts that are fueled by different drivers and in a context that is vastly different both in terms of fiscal, in terms of labor market, in terms of energy. That certainly has something to do with explaining why figures are where they are and you know that better than anyone else. The Fed started a little bit earlier than the ECB and started from a base which was not negative interest rates either. And the next question goes to Isabella Bufacki of Isola. I wanted to add for Tom, you asked do we have more ground to cover? At this point in time I wouldn't say so because as I said the data that we just discussed and the assessment of data will actually tell us whether and how much ground we have to cover in September and at subsequent meetings. And as I said in the early part of this press conference it may vary from one month to the other. Thank you. Isabella please. Sorry. Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity. President Lagarde I have two questions. One is on this message that you're conveying of the next meeting that it could be a hike or a pause. The next meetings with the next meetings. And so I mean compared to what we had up to now that is 25 basic high coming to the next meeting. Well do you have a message to the European citizens that the fight against inflation you are getting closer to break the back of inflation. I mean there is some good news in this announcement or these comments that you're making. And then the second question if I may is on your assessment of the ECB Euro area bank lending survey because it had some data on demand that was I think never seen the past 20 years. And so whether it was discussed at the governing council and it had an impact also on today's decision. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes we are making progress and I think the good news for European compatriots is that inflation is declining. You know we had a reading of 10.6 percent in October. We are now at 5.5 percent. But is that enough. Is that good as a result. Not quite. We have a target which is medium term 2 percent sustainable and we want to get there. But I'm sure that you know people when they do their shopping when they do when they fill up the tank when they pay the gas bill they see that the increase is not quite the same as six seven months ago. But are we satisfied. Are we claiming victory. No. We want to go to the end of the game. The bank lending survey. Yes. We looked at it carefully. It was debated with governors and if you look at the monetary policy statement in the last I think it's in the last paragraph that we have. It's it's it's very very significantly described. We say the annual growth rate of lending continued to decrease in June falling to 3 percent for firms and 1.7 percent for households with annualized growth rate of 0 percent completely flat and minus 0.2 percent in the second quarter respectively. So not only are we seeing it very mildly mildly growth year on year but we're seeing a decline in the last quarter and the same holds for both corporates and households. So yes of course this is one of the one of the element of transmission that we have we have seen discussed and the fall in demand is also obvious particularly on the part of corporates a bit less so for households but on the part of corporates absolutely absolutely yeah. Thank you and this brings our press conference to the end. We wish you a very nice and happy summer and see you back here for our next press conference on the 14th of September. Thank you very much.