Let's chat, ECB's Lagarde tells euro citizens

In a video message directly addressing citizens of the 19 area eurozone, a smiling Christine Lagarde urges people to share their "ideas and concerns".

"The euro actually belongs to all of us," the ECB chief says.

"So we need to hear from you in this strategy review. Stable prices help you make decisions in many aspects of your life, from saving to borrowing and from spending to investing."

Citizens can get in touch through the ECB's website or take part in "listening events", the first of which will be held in Brussels on March 26 and attended by Lagarde herself.

Lagarde, who became the ECB's first female leader last November, has kicked off a year-long monetary policy review at the Frankfurt institution.

Its main aim is to consider whether the bank's goal of chasing an inflation target just below two percent is too rigid at a time of stubbornly low price growth.

But the wide-ranging "strategy review" will also focus on other issues including whether monetary policy can play a role in combatting climate change, and how the bank can communicate more clearly.

Lagarde, who is herself not an economist by training, last year promised to "dust off" the ECB's famously jargon-heavy language to help citizens understand "what the ECB is for".

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020

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