Multiple seeking challenges in the rise of yonperforming loans, so m second question is on banks. The general counsel discuss the onond containment measures european banks . Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Tltro is a longterm refinancing scheme that is really intended help the financing of the economy because banks are offered very attractive terms in order and provided that the lind to the economy. It is not that they lend to the economy. It is not that it was a very generous package of refinancing without any conditionalities. The banks are going to only be eligible to the very attractive rate of 100 basis points provided that they lend at least as much as they did to the economy. So that is number one. It is an encouragement to finance the economy. And all sectors of the economy, not just large corporate accounts. It is focused on small and mediumsized enterprises. Through the enlargement of collateral pools, we make sure it can reached the small osborne orders and very small small entrepreneurs and very small enterprises. It has had very successful pickup. If i remember, the june takeup was in excess of 1. 3 trillion euros. Tltros is a, structured, as calibrated, and with the incentive component sick thatroven it has has proven extrinsic successful. If you look at the bank lending survey, the banks themselves are acknowledging that tltros have been critically important for them to continue extending credit to the economy. At theactor, if you look credit terms that they are offered, you really see that Interest Rates offered to and households are at the lowest end of Interest Rates. If you look at the volume of credit, there has been significant takeup of credit demanded by firms and households. That demand has slowed down a little bit lately. That is a survey indicator. Banks are anticipating that credit might tighten, particularly to the corporate, so we will see. We are very attentive, and we will continue to monitor that. But bottom line, it is a very attractive, well calibrated instrument that has been very successful, the guarantees that Interest Rates be maintained out to a very low level and that credit be expended be expanded enlargement. The impact of the second wave on banks is going to depend on the bank situation. It is going to be a factor of their market size, their business model. Something. Tell you the European Central bank and the whole european system will be attentive because we need to make sure that credit continues flowing in the economy. We need to make sure that the financing conditions remain favorable in order to support the recovery, and we need to make sure there is ample liquidity around in order to respond to any kind of shocks, we will of development see in the weeks and months to come. Using thecalibrate data we will gather to make sure we can actually do that. Thank you. The next question is from reuters. Good afternoon. A couple of questions. First one is very specifically about did any policy number offer policy action today . Did you discuss any change in your policy instruments today . The second question is about your meeting schedule. In the spring, you met quite frequently, sometimes every week. Do you have plans to increase the number of your meetings in the coming weeks . When is the next meeting going to be held . And what do you think you would need to see for the ecb to meetingt an unscheduled to take action like you did in march . Ms. Lagarde thank you very much for your questions. In response to your first question, no, we did not discuss at all any particular or specific change to any of the posse measures that we have in place. We all agreed and recalibrating in order tonts reach the goals that we have. Any of theling out tools that we have. Im not ruling in any of the tools we have. We have staff already working on this, to arrive at the best so that we can reach the goals that we have assigned to ourselves. The second question you had was about the frequency of our meetings. To tell you, although i personally regret, and i think all governing council numbers regret the times when we could sit down, work late in the evening, and end up with a ,orking dinner on wednesdays remotelyit of working usingt we can easily meet any of those devices. We can be together on very short notice to deal with multiple issues. There have been quite a few occasions, including recently, where we have addressed specific issues, where we have had seminars, where we have our compartment three discussions where we have where we have had parliamentary discussions. We will continue to meet on a regular basis, and i can assure you that despite this remoteness, we are very close to each other, and we have managed so far to maintain the good discussions that eventually lead to as consensual as possible solutions, and this is clearly happening. So if we have to meet on short notice, we will do so. We stand ready for that. Question is from the wall street journal. Thanks for taking the question, president lagarde. Just to clarify, did i understand correctly that the governing council has agreed that there will be action in december, that there will be more stimulus . The only question is what exactly that will look like . Hintedond question, you at the rate of pepp purchases. I think you are suggesting that the rate of purchases under pepp could be accelerated. Is that correct . How likely is that, and by how much would you accelerate that . Ms. Lagarde thank you very much. Those are great questions. Some of you might argue that i am reading yet again, but i cant resist because i think this paragraph is actually key. I think youp have it, actually, in the press release, but i will read it. It says this. On the basis of this updated assessment, the governing council will recalibrate its is appropriate to respond to the unfolding situation and to ensure that financing conditions remain favorable to support the economic recovery and counteract the negative impact of the pandemic on the projected inflation path. So you really have it all in there. This is a key sentence in the introductory statement. It hasnt escaped your attention, of course. But when we say we will recalibrate its instruments, we are referring to all our instruments, so it is not pepp specific. Pepp is very instrumental, lets face it. It is targeted. It is temporary. It is flexible. I will come back to that in a second. But we are saying we will recalibrate our instruments. It means what it means. All of them. That welibrating means are going to identify what is use one or ways to the other instruments, several of them, and clearly increase, expand, work on duration, on volume, unattractiveness volume, on attractiveness. Members of staff are already working on that. The second part of your question withlso to do acceleration. I think it touched on something which is critically important in our pandemic emergency purchase program, which is the very specific dimension that it has, and that we want to maintain, and take advantage of if necessary, and that is flex ability. That flexibility applies across three dimensions, which will all be also examined. It is across classes of assets, across time, and across jurisdictions. The first i dont need to explain to you. We moved into commercial paper, for instance, across time. We did frontload, back in the early days of pepp. If we have to frontload again, we will do so. And across jurisdictions, clearly we had to deviate from ,s, more so at the beginning as markets stabilized and as the Monetary Policy transmission was much better. We tempered the deviation from ts, and they have reduced. But if we need to use that aspect of the flex ability again, we will do so. Thank you. Again, wexibility will do so. Thank you. The next question is from bloomberg. Good afternoon. I have two questions. One is a followup to what tom was asking. In this situation, could you explain to us a little bit the sort of circumstances under which you wouldnt recalibrate or add stimulus in december . That is my first question. The second one is, you talked about headline inflation that is going to be negative into early 2021. I know you explained this doesnt constitute inflation, but with a second recession concernede you not that the eurozone is already in a kind of lowflation trap, or even deflation . Thank you. Ms. Lagarde circumstances under which we would recalibrate, first of all, i would like to yet again mention that the governing council was in complete agreement on the fact that action will be needed, and that recalibration is the right approach to the extent that it applies to all of our instruments. What the circumstances will be will clearly be a factor of, number one, the incidence of the pandemic, the pace at which infections continue and contagion develops. The containment measures that are taken almost every day and as we speak, the fiscal responses that will also be laid out in order to respond to the circumstances, and all of that will lead to make staff readjusting their projection and providing scenarios, the baseline, and with the right assumptions behind such scenarios. So it is on the basis of that that we will determine whether the recalibration, how it plays out, and how it is best structured in order to respond to those circumstances, but we have little doubt, given what is of thed as a result risks that we are seeing come that circumstances will warrant the recalibration and the implementation of this recalibrated package. Your second question had to do with inflation. I will say what i have said already. The inflation number that we have for september, for august, ra negative territory. 0. 3 . Followed by behind those numbers, they are clearly specific oneoff factors or very particular reasons. You have the combination of, for instance, the italian garment sale, including not only the summer garments, but moving into the whole winter collection. You have the Energy Prices that are clearly weighing also on inflation. Rates ofthe discounted travel services, and so on and so forth. But that is not going to be forever. Clearly, what we expect is, in of 2021, aof 21 recovery that will begin picking up and resulting in demand being stimulated yet again, particularly if we continue to have fiscal and Monetary Policy supporting this recovery. Frome next question comes the new york times. Hello. Good afternoon, madam lagarde. At the ecb listens event a few said thatphilip lang he was open to the ecb dealing directly with the real economy, which i attribute to mean without using banks as intermediaries. It would be interested on your views on that, what that might mean, and whether this is something the governing council has discussed. The second question, on fiscal stimulus, in light of the new containment measures and new risks to the economy if the fiscal stimulus that has already been decided enough . Or should governments have the space to do more stimulus . I realize the political difficult is for that. Thank you. Ms. Lagarde thank you. I am glad you could listen to the ecb listens event because that was the first, and it was really encouraging, and good to hear the sounds of nongovernmental organizations, Civil Society representatives, and i think it was unheard at the European Central bank, that cultural associations and ngos could actually express their views and indicate what they expect. We are actually dealing with the real economy. If you look at the way tltros have been structured, for instance, with a clear focus and incentive for banks to actually provide credit to the economy, provide credit to the entire sectors, from the professionals to the single entrepreneur to the large corporates, our focus is really to make sure that the economy recovers, that we as a central bank will provide the best possible financing conditions in order to support that effort, and while focusing on price stability in the measurements we have so far to determine whether or not our goal has been attained, that we therefore support the economy. Was that intended to shortcut the banks . I dont think so. Clearly, the banks are a transmission channel that is critically important in order to make sure that our Monetary Policy reaches all sectors of and of our euro area economies. On the stimulus front, we are quite encouraged to have seen for the first time in many years fiscal and monetary work together. I remember the discussions we were having during the great financial crisis, where fiscal was lagging behind and was not in sync with the very necessary Monetary Policy that was deployed at the time. Hand, is working hand in if you will. And when we look at the budgetary submissions, we clearly see that for the moment, the effort that is envisaged by Member States is pretty much on par with what was envisaged in 2020. In addition to that, there is the clear game changer of the next generation eu, the the recovery and resilience facility that is part of the next generation eu plan that has been agreed by the leaders of the european council, which is clearly going in the direction of jointly addressing the crisis, jointly borrowing, to the fiscalng effort that is necessary in the present situation. So i very much hope that it continues into 2021, given what we are facing. I would not be very surprised if there was more fiscal support undertaken at the national levels, given the situation in the worsening of the conditions we are seeing at the moment. Comes from question the telegraph in the netherlands. Good afternoon. I have two questions, if i may. If we see an economic recovery in the euro zone, some euro zone countries might recover faster than others. What will the ecb do against this fragmentation . Itscond question would be been almost one year since you took over at the helm of the ecb. How do you look back at your first year . Ms. Lagarde i think your analysis is correct. As part of this eu and euro Area Recovery that we are all looking ,orward to and working hard for some countries will emerge in a stronger place because some countries went into this pandemic and its economic consequences and a stronger place as well, which is why we all think around the table of the governing council that the next generation eu and the rff are actually welldesigned to try to address the risk that youve identified. That is on the fiscal friend. As far as Monetary Policy is tools to, we have the deal with fragmentation. If anything, what we have done from march up until now has been particularly efficient to actually make sure that monetary transmitted,perly that the fragmentation risk is becausee and eliminated it is the euro area. All, i would say it has gone by unbelievably fast. Number two, it has been quite a the, and certainly not one i was expecting. Ive enjoyed it, and i am really pleased to try to do the best i can and to deploy all the energy that i have around the table, and with staff which are producing an enormous amount of tok very hard circumstances help with the recovery and to make sure that, as i said, financing conditions are there in order to support the recovery. Then x question comes from mni the next question comes from mni. Of thebuzz word afternoon has clearly been recalibrated. I would like to return to that, if i may. The numerous tools at the erning councils disposal are you afraid that the ecb could use all its firepower to support the euro zone through this second phase of the pandemic damage, and leave us left to fuel the upturn . First of all, concerning this word recalibration, i think ive tried to explain it, but i will try again if this does not convince you. Ist we mean to say determined instrument by instrument, a mix of instruments together, what is going to be the optimal response under the current circumstances and given the outlook that we are facing in that we will be facing with the new projections. Will that mean an increase . Will that mean an extension . Will that mean a variation in the terms of such programs . Will it mean a revision of the collaterals . All of it will be looked at clearly, and recalibration there will be. That is what we say in the introductory statement. I dont really understand use of are you concerned that you will use all of your firepower because i got pretty similar questions much earlier on when i was told there was no toolbox left anymore, or that we had used all of our powder and there was nothing left we could do. We have clearly demonstrated during the first wave of the pandemic that of course, we could tailor new tools. Of course we could revisit them. Of course we could recalibrate some of the tltros, and we did so. And of course we could explore under the particularly exceptional circumstances what terms and conditions would apply, and that was the case with ability applied to with flexibility applied to pepp. So we have done it. The ecb was there for the first wave. The ecb will be here for the second wave, and we will deploy the same flex ability, and in the meantime, while we are working on this calibration this retelevision exercise we have agreed. Thank you. The next question is from mace news. Thank you so much. I wanted to speak to you a little bit about your opening statement, were you mentioned one of the things you are monetaryt is the Exchange Rates. I can dream them or a time you have mentioned Exchange Rates so high up in your presentation. The followup question, when youre looking at your recalibration, how do your economists, how are you able to recalibrate when a number of things are out of your control, like the Exchange Rate, and like the passage of fiscal policy . How will that affect your deliberations of what happens in december . Thank you. Ms. Lagarde i think there was complete agreement around the that theay to conclude most relevant and the driving comes to our revision december, and that applies to both the projections, as well as to our auditory policy, is ctually the covid19 cases sometimes exponential advancement, the measures taken as a result, and the consequent is it will have, and probably weigh into 2021, given the seriousness and the hardship of what is coming. So while we are very attentive to Exchange Rate, and we maygnize that Exchange Rate have a clear impact on inflation , we do not necessarily think at this point that this is the driving factor. Factorse exotic and its that you cannot influence. When i look at the contagion rate, when i look at the containment measures, when i look at the support to vaccination, these are not the things that a central bank can actually operate upon. What we can do is draw consequences that extend to us and take the necessary policy actions in order to provide the best support to economic recovery. Ini think we have humility that respect, and we recognize that there are things we simply cannot inf