The official site of Italy's central bank

Objectives and strategies

The primary objective of the Eurosystem is to maintain price stability, as laid down in Article 105 of the Treaty establishing the European Community. For this purpose, the ECB’s Governing Council has declared that the inflation rate should be kept below, but close to 2% over the medium term.

To achieve price stability, the central bank influences market conditions and therefore short-term interest rates.

Changes induced in money market interest rates and the transmission mechanism of monetary policy are used to help the banking system meet its financing requirements. These requirements partly relate to the supply of banknotes for bank customers and are partly induced by the Eurosystem, which obliges banks to hold minimum reserves.