Introductory speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the opening reception of the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal

Sintra, 1 July 2024

First of all, I would like to welcome you all to this year’s ECB Forum.

The theme of the conference is “Monetary policy in an era of transformation”, and we have a rich programme ahead of us, exploring the changes that are taking place.

But even if most of us can agree that the economy is undergoing substantial change, I imagine there are more diverging views about where it will end up.

This lack of clarity presents a profound challenge for policymakers, as we must try at once to understand these transformations and to steer the economy through them.

Indeed, much of the policy challenge over the last few years has involved stabilising inflation while facing fundamental uncertainty about the economy.

Nevertheless, we have managed to chart a path through this uncertainty, and we have come a long way in the fight…