Monetary policy measures in the euro area and their effects since 2014

Inflation in the euro area has been significantly below its target level since the end of 2013. This can be passed on to long-term inflation expectations and is a reflection of the very progressive recovery. At a time when price stability was coming under threat, the Eurosystem embarked on a new phase of monetary accommodation in the summer of 2014, marked notably by massive purchases of government securities and negative policy rates. According to Eurosystem estimates, the asset purchase programme and the other non-standard measures taken since 2014 are expected to have an effect on average annual inflation of around 0.5 percentage point over the period 2015-2018 and a cumulative effect on the economic growth of the euro area of about 1.6 percentage points by 2018.