Lagarde: Monetary Policy Can't Bring Down Energy Prices

It is a pleasure to be back at the ECB Watchers Conference. If this event had been held a few weeks ago, my speech would have been very different. The euro area economy ended the year with solid growth momentum. Inflation stood at 1.9% in February. And domestic growth engines looked to be strengthening, particularly private consumption, investment in digitalisation and defence spending. In all likelihood, we would have revised up our March forecasts for growth and revised them down for inflation. But we find ourselves yet again in a different world, whose contours are not yet clear. We are facing profound uncertainty ... (full story)