Following are the highlights of the European Central Bank's monthly bulletin:
- Recent exchange rate volatility represents a source of uncertainty and require monitoring with regard to their potential impact on the medium-term outlook for price stability.
- Although the ongoing economic recovery provides confidence that inflation will gradually move to target levels, this recovery has not been adequately translated into inflation.
- Economic recovery, which accelerated more than expected in the first half of 2017, remains strong and widely across countries and sectors.
- Basic inflation indicators have risen slightly in recent months but have generally remained at low levels.
- A significant degree of accommodative policy is still needed to support underlying inflation over the medium term.
- GDP rose by 0.6% in the second quarter this year after rising by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2017. The Eurozone economy is expected to grow by 2.2% in 2017, 1.8% in 2018 and 1.7% in 2019.
- Annual inflation in the euro area is expected to rise by 1.5% in 2017, by 1.2% in 2018 and by 1.5% in 2019.
- The Governing Council of the ECB has kept interest rates unchanged and is expected to remain at current levels for a period of time.
- It also confirmed that the asset purchase program will remain at a monthly pace of 60 billion euros until the end of December 2017.