Christine Lagarde: The monetary policy strategy review - some preliminary considerations

Speech by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, at the "ECB and Its Watchers XXI" conference, Frankfurt am Main, 30 September 2020.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Thank you for inviting me to address this conference. This morning, I would like to speak to you about the ECB's strategy review, the reasons we are conducting it, and our expectations as a result of it.

Since 2003, when we last conducted a strategy review, the euro area and the world economy have undergone profound changes. The consensus that has governed monetary policy worldwide has been challenged on a number of fronts.

Most importantly, the last decade has been defined by a persistent decline in inflation among advanced economies. In the euro area, annual inflation averaged 2.3% from 1999 to the eve of the great financial crisis in August 2008, but only 1.2% from then until the end of 2019.