Implementing monetary strategy
To achieve its primary objective of maintaining price stability, the Eurosystem has a range of monetary policy instruments at its disposal. Some of these comprise "standard” measures while others are "non-standard" measures.
Standard monetary policy tools
The principal monetary policy tool consists of steering key interest rates for the Eurosystem in liaison with banks, which in turn determine the lending rates that banks charge to economic agents (businesses, households, etc.). Steering short-term interest rates, i.e. the price of money, is at the heart of standard monetary policy.
The Eurosystem uses a number of instruments to steer interest rates: