 Ladies 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. Dombrowski. Based on our regular economic and monetary analysis, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We continue to expect them to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases. Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, as decided on March 10, 2016, we have started to expand our monthly purchases under the asset purchase program to $80 billion from the previous amount of $60 billion. As stated before, these purchases are intended to run until the end of March 2017 or beyond if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. Moreover, in June, we will conduct the first operation of our new series of targeted long-term refinancing operations, TELTROTOO, and we will commence purchases under our Corporate Sector Purchase Program. Further information on the implementation aspects of the Corporate Sector Purchase Program will be released after the press conference on the ECB's website. Following our comprehensive package of decisions taken in early March, broad financing conditions in the Euro area have improved. The pass-through of the monetary policy stimulus to firms and households, notably through the banking system, is strengthening. However, global uncertainties persist. Looking forward, it is essential to preserve an appropriate degree of monetary accommodation as long as needed in order to underpin the momentum of the Euro area's economic recovery and in order to accelerate the return of inflation to levels below but close to 2%. The Governing Council will continue to monitor closely the evolution of the outlook for price stability and, if warranted, to achieve its objective will act by using all the instruments available within its mandate. In the current context, it is crucial to ensure that the very low inflation environment does not become entrenched in second round effects on wage and price setting. Let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis. Euro area real GDP increased by 0.3% quarter on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2015, supported by domestic demand, while being dampened by relatively weak export trends. Incoming data for the first quarter of 2016 point to ongoing output growth at a pace broadly similar to that in the final quarter of 2015. Looking ahead, we expect the economic recovery to proceed. Domestic demand in particular continues to be supported by our monetary policy measures. Their favorable impact on financing conditions, together with improvements in corporate profitability, is benefit in investment. Moreover, our accommodative monetary policy stance continued employment gains resulting from past structural reforms and a still relatively low price of oil should provide ongoing support for households real disposable income and private consumption. In addition, the fiscal stance in the Euro area is slightly expansionary. At the same time, the economic recovery in the Euro area is still dampened by the ongoing balance sheet adjustments in a number of sectors, the insufficient pace of implementation of structural reforms and subdued growth prospects in emerging markets. The risks to the Euro area growth outlook still remain tilted to the downside. Our recent monetary policy decisions have improved overall financing conditions which should support the outlook for consumption and investment. However, uncertainties persist and relate in particular to developments in the global economy and to geopolitical risks. According to Eurostat, Euro area annual HICP inflation in March 2016 was zero. Compared with minus 0.2% in February, reflecting mainly a rise in services price inflation. Looking ahead on the basis of current futures prices for energy, inflation rates could turn negative again in the coming months before picking up in the second half of 2016. Thereafter, supported by our monetary policy measures and the expected economic recovery, inflation rates should recover further in 2017 and 2018. Turning to the monetary analysis, broad money, M3, continued to grow at a robust pace in February 2016, with its annual rate of growth remaining unchanged at 5%. As in previous months, annual growth in M3 is mainly supported by its most liquid components, with narrow monetary aggregate M1 growing at an annual rate of 10.3% in February after 10.5% in January. Non-dynamics followed the path of gradual recovery observed since the beginning of 2014. The annual rate of change of loans to non-financial corporations adjusted for loan sales and securitization increased to 0.9% in February 2016, up from 0.6% in January. As in loans to enterprises, continued to reflect the lagged relationship with the business cycle, credit risk, and the ongoing adjustment of financial and non-financial sector balance sheets. The annual growth rate of loans to households increased to 1.6% in February from 1.4% in January. The Euro Area Bank lending survey for the first quarter of 2016 indicates further improvements in loan supply conditions for enterprises and in loan demand across all loan categories. Improvements in demand for bank loans were supported by the low level of interest rates, financing needs for investment purposes, and housing market prospects. Overall, the monetary policy measures in place since June 2014 have clearly improved borrowing conditions for firms and households, as well as credit flows across the Euro Area. The comprehensive package of new monetary policy measures adopted in March this year underpins the ongoing upturn in loan growth, thereby supporting the recovery of the real economy. To sum up, a cross-check of the outcome of the economic analysis with the signals coming from the monetary analysis confirmed the need to preserve an appropriate degree of monetary accommodation in order to secure a return of inflation rates towards levels that are below but close to 2% without undue delay. Monetary policy is focused on maintaining price stability over the medium term. And its accommodative stance supports economic activity. As emphasized repeatedly by the governing council and as strongly echoed in both European and international policy discussions, in order to reap the full benefits from our monetary policy measures, other policy areas must contribute much more decisively, both at the national and at the European levels. Structural policies are essential given continued high structural unemployment and low potential output growth in the Euro Area. In particular, actions to raise productivity and improve the business environment, including the provision of an adequate public infrastructure, are vital to increase investment and boost job creation. The swift and effective implementation of structural reforms in an environment of accommodative monetary policy will not only lead to higher sustainable economic growth in the Euro Area, but will also make the Euro Area more resilient to global shocks. Fiscal policies should also support the economic recovery while remaining in compliance with the fiscal rules of the European Union. Full and consistent implementation of the stability and growth pact is crucial to maintain confidence in the fiscal framework. At the same time, all countries should strive for a more growth-friendly composition of fiscal policies. We are now at your disposal for questions. President Alessandro Speciale from Bloomberg News. My first question is on the corporate bond program. If you could give us some more details on the composition, the maturity, how the purchase is will be carried out, and what is the contribution that you expect from corporate buying to the 80 billion target of your purchase programs. You have said that you remain ready to use all instruments available within your mandate. My question is if so-called helicopter money, you consider it to be in the mandate if there are preliminary studies in this direction to assess the legal feasibility of such problem in any form that doesn't run into the prohibition of government financing. Thank you very much. Thank you. You'll get all the details of the corporate program shortly after the press conference. But let me just say a few things here. I can tell you the universe is addressed to all known banks, also to insurance companies that have a certain rating. So if a company owns a bank, but it's not a bank, its parent company is not a bank, it's suitable, it's eligible. But if the parent is a bank, then they are not eligible. The risk is shared, it's fully shared. The maturity goes up to 30 years, the issue limit is up to 70%, and that will contribute to the overall size of 80 billion euros per month. On your second question, let me first read to you what, because I was actually quite surprised by the interpretation that my words had. Let me say, let me read exactly what I said in the last press conference. I said, the question is about what you asked, and I said, we haven't really thought or talked about it. It's a very interesting concept that's now being discussed by academic economists and in various environments, but we haven't studied the concept. It clearly involves complexities, both accounting-wise, legal-wise, and it may mean different things to different people. Then in answering to an MP who asked me about the same question two days ago, I said the concept is fraught with operational, legal, and institutional difficulties. But the bottom line is that we have never discussed it. Mr Corani. Mr Corani from Reuters. Mr Draghi, how do you respond to the German criticism of the ECB and personally of you of recent weeks? And if you are invited to speak at the Bundestag, would you go along? Second question is about what you would call the mechanical update of your inflation forecasts. I'm curious how much does the March measures add to the forecasts? If you could give us a precise figure, that would be wonderful. But I'm also interested in how the oil price increase and the real exchange rate firming affects the inflation outlook. You mind picking two out of your three questions? One was about Germany, definitely. The other is the mechanical update of the inflation forecast. And what affects it? Well, your first question, let me say, first thing is that we have a mandate. We have a mandate to pursue price stability for the whole of the eurozone, and only for Germany. This mandate is established by the treaty, by the European law. We obey the law, not the politicians, because we are independent, as stated by the law. And by the way, all this applies to all countries, to all politicians in the eurozone. This morning we had a brief discussion on this issue. And I can report to you that the governing council was unanimous in defending the independence of the European Central Bank and the appropriateness of the current monetary policy stance. Having said that, let me say that our policies are not very different from policies that are being implemented in a very large part of the world, in most of the other, in all the other important jurisdictions. And our policies work. They are effective. Just give them time to fully display their effects. Of course, if there were also structural reforms, the effect of these policies would be quicker. But the bottom line of this is that our policies are the necessary policies for return of the inflation rate to our objective of a level, to a level below but close to 2%. Are the necessary conditions for return of growth to higher level? And are the necessary conditions for return of interest rates to a higher level than today? On your other two questions, I can only say that the monetary policy measures that we have enacted in March had the effect of avoiding the second round effects caused by the turbulence of the beginning of the year that would have had an impact into our medium term outlook. There are estimates by our staff of the counterfactual of what would happen if our policies had not been put in place. But they do refer to policies that have been put in place since mid-2014, not necessarily, not exactly to the ones that we've decided to that point in time. And they, the ones that I just mentioned going back to 2014, they basically say that growth over this year, next in 2018, would be 1.6% less than it would have been than it will be, than it will be after the implementation of the monetary policy measures. And the inflation rate would have been negative this year, and if I'm not mistaken, but it may well be I am, about half a percentage point less over the following two years. But as I said, these estimates do refer to the monetary policy measures that have been enacted since mid-2014. Mr. Merli. Alessandro Merli, of Insola 24 ore tomorrow. In Amsterdam, you're going to discuss at European level for a proposal for possible regulatory changes to the exposure to sovereign risk of banks. I wondered if you have a position on that, if this is the right time, if they should be coordinating with the discussion at the global level in the Basel committee in more generally what is your position on these, on this discussion. My other question is about the creation of fund in Italy between banks to participate in capital increase of other banks and acquire non-performing loans, which you've pointed out several times are one of the problems affecting the European banking system. I wonder if you have any comment on that as well. I respond to the second question saying that we haven't yet examined completely the details of this. I can say it's a step, it's a small step in the right direction. I would ask the vice-president to respond to the second question, but just to the first question. Well regarding this issue we have discussed it and we have participated very actively in the working group of the EFC that has addressed and prepared the report. I have asked him to respond because he's the one who's going to discuss this issue tomorrow. And also we have been very active in the working group of the Basel committee. So our position which has also been discussed in the macro-prudential forum where we have the governing council and the supervisory board at the same time and our position has been that first there is reason to change the present system of zero risk-weights, second that the revision should not create undue turbulence in markets where the sovereign debt is used like for instance the repo market and in general short-term money markets, and third that it should be a change in the international standard, meaning coming out of the Basel committee discussion. A principle by the way which is also mentioned in the five presidents report that any revision of the sovereign debt risk-weight regime should be decided in an international context to ensure level playing field. So that has been our position. There are possible combinations of concerns with over-concentration of sovereign debt in the portfolio of some banks by changing the risk-weights accordingly and creating then a price-decentive for those accumulation of possible excessive holdings. But the three principles are the guidance for our position in all these matters. And also we think that this is a separate problem from any other problem. It's in itself a consideration, a reflection that comes out of the crisis and a consideration of proper treatment of credit risk in the accounts of banks. Let me add that there are three, at least there are three, say, source of work on besides what's being done by the EFC and the ECOFIN, one is a report of DSRB, another one will be a report of the ECB, and so, and the third will be the report of the EFC, the working group on sovereign debt to which you are part. Clare Jones. Clare Jones, Financial Times. Mr Draghi, first of all, I'd like to ask you about the global uncertainties, particularly which ones have become more and perhaps less worrisome over recent months. We've had some better data from China, for instance, but rather disappointing conclusion of the Doha talks on oil. I'd just like to return from a second question to Alessandro's point on helicopter money, very simply, do you think something that you would see as helicopter money could be done by the ECB in a way that is compatible with EU law? Thank you. I'm sorry, the answer to the second question is the same. We never discussed it. The answer to the first question. Now, we've taken these monetary policy measures in March, and it was a very comprehensive set of measures. Since then, broad financing conditions indeed have improved, and we view these measures as being important in avoiding second round effects in the wage and price settings. And as I said in the introductory statement, growth is moderate, but it's steady. Now, as things are moderately improving, we've got to be very careful about not losing focus from our main objective, which is the return of inflation to our objective of a level close, but below 2%. And inflation remains very low, will possibly be negative in the coming months. And this combines with the global uncertainty that was, I would say, highlighted during the IMF meetings in Washington. So the consequence for our monetary policy stance is that, of course, we keep the monetary policy stance as decided in March, and we now focus on its implementation. Second, our monetary policy course will continue to diverge from the monetary policy courses that prevail in other jurisdictions, better placed in the recovery cycle. Third, if there were an unwanted tightening in broad financing conditions that would alter our medium term outlook, the government council stands ready to act using all the available instruments within its mandate. Thank you. Mr. Ferless. Thank you. Tom Ferless from the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Draghi, you've emphasised twice now that all your instruments stand open for use. Last press conference, you said that interest rates, you didn't anticipate that there'd be a need to cut them again. Has that position changed? Why and how far could, how far much further interest rates fall? That's one question. The second question is on the Euro exchange rate. After your last, well, since the last large package of measures, it's gone against, I mean, it's risen against the dollar and other currencies. How much of a concern is that? I know you don't target the exchange rate specifically, but it's an economic factor. And does it say anything about the ECB's ability to influence the exchange rate? Thanks. Thank you. I'll answer the second question really. As I said many times, the exchange rate is not a policy target. It's important for price stability and for growth. And we've taken the measures in March. And these measures have been effective and will be effective in avoiding second round effects in the price and wage setting behavior. Let me, however, say, respond to the first question. And I'll just again read what I said last time about the continuation of negative interest rates. So the governing council, although it gives a positive judgment about the past experience, is increasingly aware of the complexities that this measure entails. Now, I've said before, and I've elaborated quite with some length last time about the complexities that this measure might entail. I should say the experience has been broadly positive for the ECB. It has affected the, positively, the credit conditions easing them. It has eased broadly all the financing conditions. We have no evidence that it hampered the transmission of monetary policy. And when we look at bank profitability, we see that 2015, the first full year with negative interest rates, has not affected or has not caused negative interest income, net interest income going down. As a matter of fact, went up. Now, of course, we've got to be cautious here because we talk about the aggregate of the banking system in the euro area. And, of course, aggregates may actually conceal different realities. We also saw no significant evidence that these negative interest rates had been passed through to the depositors or the borrowers from the banking system. So, all in all, the experience has been positive. Then one asks himself, is this positive experience going to be true for any level of interest rates? And the answer is no, of course. So, the issue of negative interest rates is not so much an issue yes or no. It's an issue of extent. And so, that's why the governing council said that it was increasingly aware of the complexities that this measure entails. And as I said before, if there is going to be an unwanted tightening of financing conditions that would alter the medium-term outlook, our medium-term outlook, the governing council stands ready to act with all the available instruments in its mandate. Within its mandate. Mr. Blaszczak. Thank you. Mario Blaszczak, World Dispense Online. Mr. President, you mentioned in your introductory statement that the growth outlook for eurozone remains broadly unchanged. And so far, eurozone economy has been very resilient to external shocks, especially from the downturn or fear of downturn from Asia in the beginning of this year. So, my question is, to what extent is that the factor of the lower real exchange rate of euro and other measures, if you can comment on that? And my second question goes to the recently published credit lending survey that has been very optimistic with more than 30% demand rise for credit in the eurozone, while the hard data point to 0.9% rise in loans to non-financial corporations. So, I would like you to comment on the difference in the extremely positive demand rise and the barely rising hard data. Thank you. Thank you. Growth continues to be moderate but steady. It's mostly supported by consumption and investment, and now investment, and it's dampened by the external component. The R-monetary policy measures have been supporting growth. And I should say, with the rare exceptions, they have been our monetary policy has been the only policy in the last four years to support growth. And so, it will continue to do so. But clearly, as I said many, many times, not only monetary policy is a necessary condition for returning to structural, long-term, sustainable growth, but then you have to have other conditions. First and foremost is structural reforms. And that's why the introductory statement today receives this renewed emphasis on structural reforms, which, by the way, was highlighted in the last IMF meetings as well. And the third, what the IMF called the three-pronged approach, the third condition to be in place is an appropriate fiscal policy, where we observed that for the Euro area, the current fiscal policy is likely expansionary. But again, the issue here is not only a question of size, but for many countries, if not most countries in the Euro area, the issue is a question of composition, a composition that is being called here growth-friendly, namely a composition with lower taxes, lower current government expenditure, and more public investment. This is the answer to your first question. The second question, really, I would say the bank landing survey shows that credit continues. It's pretty solid. It started without interruption since the second quarter of 2014. The number of rejections rate went down considerably, and it's been going down steadily. That's also even more important, the continuation of this process. And so together with the dramatic falling rates and an increase in volumes, this shows that our measures are indeed quite effective. When we come to, we also asked, there was another question in the bank landing survey where we asked, what use are you going to make of the APP, the asset purchase program proceeds? And the banks answered that they use mainly for granting loans, which is good evidence that the asset purchase or the QE, as it is otherwise called, is being transmitted to the real economy. But they also added that they are using more, the consequence of the APP for them, is more to adjust price in terms of the landing more than volumes as such. And also they answered about profitability, which is going up because of capital gains and funding costs that went down. So these were the answers of the bank landing survey that portrayed a credit sector that is strengthening and it's contributing to higher growth and to the return to price stability. Mr. Wagner. Peter Wagner. Mr. Draghi, German citizens are seriously worried about their private pension schemes. The German citizens are seriously worried about their private pension schemes because all of those are dependent on the interest rate level and they have little years or no years. Are your family with this kind of concerns? Did you discuss it in the Council? And what would you say to the German citizens who are worried about their pensions? Yeah, we are familiar with these concerns. We closely monitor these developments. It's pretty evident that pension funds and insurance companies like another actors are really affected by the low level are significantly affected by the low level of interest rates. By the way, I would sort of urge all the actors in the sector to resist the temptation to blame low interest rates as the cause of everything that went wrong and had been going wrong for years with the sector. But having said that, having said that, I think they are being affected by low rates, although one should keep in mind that they also realize substantial capital gains on the bonds that we are buying because some of them are amongst the main sellers or main counterparties in our asset purchase program. And also I would like to point out that low interest rates are not, in a sense I did say before, are not a specificity of the eurozone. The United States had zero interest rates for much longer than we'd be having low interest rates. And still clearly the pension fund industry and insurance industry have been affected but in a different way and not certainly not in the same way as the eurozone and especially the German pension fund industry and insurance company, insurance industry has been affected. This has to do with a variety of reasons, some of which have to do with the current regulation, some of which have to do with the business model, but basically it's not because of the monetary policy. Second point, low interest rates are a symptom of low growth and low inflation. It's not the monetary policy consequence if we want to return, as I said before, if we want to return to higher interest rates we have before to return to higher growth and higher inflation. To do so we need the current monetary policy. That's the necessary condition. Finally of course we also need to look at real rates, not only monetary nominal rates and if we look at real rates one will see that the difference is much less dramatic. In fact real rates today are higher than they were about 20, 30 years ago. But I am aware that to explain real rates to savers it may be difficult. That's your job, I would say. Mr. Schröss? Mark Schröss with Birnstein and thank you. My first one is on inflation expectations. They have failed to pick up since the March package. I just wanted to know how disappointed or frustrated you about this reaction. And the second one is on the criticism in Germany. The German Finance Minister was quoted saying that the ECB policy is to a large extent responsible for the rise of the populist party after. I just wanted to know how guilty you feel for that. I guess we all know that you met in Washington. I guess you raised this point. I just wanted to know what your discussions have been on this issue. Thanks. I mean the discussions have been very positive, fruitful and I would say quiet and very friendly. Mr. Schröss himself returned upon his words. I don't have it here what he said exactly but you can check saying that he didn't mean what he said or he didn't say what he meant anyway. He returned on this. And in view of the previous, my previous words, he said I didn't say the monetary policy of the ECB is to blame for the emergence of the AFD. And he said I pointed out that the feeling of insecurity among people who have to be concerned that there will be no negative interest rates for a long time contributes to the bewilderment that we are seeing in many election results. Which is what you were saying before, substantially in your previous question. And so that is the situation which of course in light of what I said at the beginning about us having a mandate and being bound by the law is certainly welcome. Having said that, by the way, and I'm responding also to remarks made by other public figures, our policies are the same policies that are being acted by and large, of course each country has its own specificity. The same policies are being enacted in other parts of the world. Second, would a non-Italian president run different policies? Well, I think of course the answer I would give yes, of course. But that would not be enough if my predecessor, Mr. Trichet, two days ago he gave an interview where he said I would have done the same things that Mario did. So he confirmed what is the assessment of the governing council in its entirety, which as I said today confirmed it defended the appropriateness of the monetary policy stance and defended the independence. Thank you. Oh yeah, the other question is about inflation expectations. Sorry. When we had low inflation for a long time and we are going to have low inflation for a long time, we should be patient. We should follow and monitor closely how the, well first of all, let me say one thing, the future path of inflation is going to be supported by our monetary policy measures first and foremost, by the recovery and by the expected recovery and by base effects. We will see as the first will more and more show its beneficial effects, as the second will more and more materialize and the third will, the base effects will come through by mid, in the second part of this year, we will see that actual inflation will increase and expectations will also follow that. What is true is that in the course of the 2014, there was an increasing correlation between medium term inflation expectations and current inflation and oil prices, which for us was the sign that it was important to act and to act strongly as we did. So now we have to be patient. The correlation with oil prices has decreased, but we have to wait. Mr. Katmour? Thank you so much. President Draghi, my question is really about animal spirits and as it refers to the criticism you've received from senior German politicians, can I ask you, do you think at the margin, because this gets a lot of publicity, that it will affect business confidence and consumer confidence in the Eurozone and that people might resist borrowing for capital investment because they're concerned that the Germans are leaning on you and leaning on the council and that may inhibit you from taking all actions necessary. And my second question is really about the same thing with regard to Brexit. Has the council seen any evidence that the Brexit debate in the UK is slowing UK PLC investment into the Eurozone ahead of the June vote? Thank you. Thank you. I'm answering your first question. A polite, lively debate may even be welcome because it helps us to explain better our monetary policies and their shape and their success. But certainly, criticisms of a certain type could be viewed or perceived as endangering the independence of the ECB. However, endangering the independence of the ECB and therefore causing the sort of behavior that you hinted at, namely delaying investment, delaying taking risks. However, we are independent. So we will continue in the course of the policy action that we consider it appropriate. The result of all this is only that it will take longer for our monetary policy measures to produce the results that we want. Anytime the credibility of a central bank is perceived as being put into question, the result is a delay in the achievement of its objectives and therefore the need for more policy expansion. The second point is, first of all, let me state unequivocally that we view the participation of the UK to the European Union as mutually beneficial. And we'll continue to say so in the coming weeks. Certainly, the discussion about this possibility has already produced some significant consequences on the markets. For example, a depreciation of the sterling. That's quite significant. We do expect a continuation of market volatility, certainly until the referendum. I don't want to speculate about the outcome of the referendum, probably even after the referendum. Is it enough to endanger the economic recovery in the euro area? The assessment of our staff is that the risk of this happening is limited. Thank you. The last question will go to Miss Trich. Johanna Trich with MNI. In the conference call, that's usually sort of dedicated just to policy announcement, today you said that you will focus now on the implementation of previously announced measures. And I wonder what the message is there and why you've decided to give it such prominence to actually lift it into the conference call. Does that mean you think we're done now? Or could you explain that a little bit? My second question is, earlier in the week, the ECB said that following the extension of the QE program that you decided last month, you now expect more national central banks to have to engage into substitute purchases. Does that mean then that you do see risks of scarcity emerging at least towards the end of the program? And now that you've branched into corporate bonds, does that mean that the next logical step might actually be equities? Thank you very much. Thank you. I can answer first with your second question. The answer is no, we don't see risks of scarcity. And we have not discussed other measures. And in answering this way, I will also, in a sense, anticipate my answer to your first question. And I'll read, I believe, by and large, the same words as the statement. Say, we decided at our March meeting, we decided on a comprehensive package of measures to ease financing conditions, stimulate new credit provision, and thereby reinforce the momentum of the euro area recovery and accelerate the return of inflation to levels below but close to 2%. Since then, broad financing conditions have improved, also in the context of receding risk aversion at global level. Our recent measures have been instrumental in avoiding that the financial turbulences that we observed earlier this year did not undermine the pass-through of our accommodative stance. I think I would stop here. Thank you. Thank you very much. And see some of you next to them.