On the basis of the information available, the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to ensure that the euro area will be able to maintain price stability over the medium term,

So we do expect to maintain a growth rate in the euro area of at least 3 percent per year for the next two years.

In the past 25 years the average growth rate of euro area gross domestic product has been between 2 and 2-1/2 percent, ... We are now in for a period this year and next year when growth will be in excess, I would even say considerably in excess, of 3 percent a year.

But we are such a large autonomous economic area, comprising a market of some 300 million people, that the impact of developments outside the Euro area on the Euro area are not negligible, but very limited indeed.