Ms. Lagarde urged reporters not to overthink her comments. “I will have my own style,” she said. “Don’t over-interpret. Don’t second guess. I’m going to be different.”

One difference may be in the attention paid to outside views. Ms. Lagarde said elected officials, academic experts and members of public interest groups would be consulted as the bank reviewed the way it conducted monetary policy.

The central bank “will be reaching out to not just the usual suspects,” she said.

She said the review would also examine what the bank could do to alleviate climate change and how monetary policy affected inequality.

Ms. Lagarde, the first woman to lead the European Central Bank, is a familiar figure in global finance. Before beginning work at the bank on Nov. 1, she spent eight years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. In that job, she was often in the thick of the action during a financial crisis or debt meltdown. [...]

While the growth in the bloc’s 19 countries remains weak, she said, “there are some initial signs of stabilization in the growth slowdown.”

Ms. Lagarde also signaled that she would question the assumptions underlying central bank policy since the euro began to circulate two decades ago.

The review of central bank strategy will begin in January and be done by the end of 2020, she said. It “will turn each and every stone, and will take its time, but will not take too much time,” she added. “It will aim at not just preaching the gospel but also listening.” [...]

Full article on New York Times

Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB press conference

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