1 Welcome
Ladies and gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to our press conference, at which we will present our annual accounts.
The French novelist and politician André Malraux is once thought to have said: "Those who wish to read the future must leaf through the past."
Today, we're offering you an opportunity to leaf through our Annual Report and look back on the events which shaped the past year. At the same time, I would also like to look to the future, as I always do on these occasions.
I will therefore start my speech today by looking at what is currently shaping the economy and monetary policy, and also say a few words about the Eurosystem's strategy review. Then I will briefly touch upon two long-term challenges, namely climate action and demographics. After that, I will comment on our annual accounts for 2019.
But let's kick off with the economy.