ECB president Christine Lagarde was speaking in Frankfurt earlier this morning. This is the first proper speech from her, because the introduction a few weeks ago didn’t offer much.

In essence, she is picking up where Mario Draghi left it, begging Germans to increase fiscals pending. Below are her comments:

• There are two main challenges in the global economy today
• The first relates to the changing nature of world trade
• There are also changes of a more structural nature
• Second challenge relates to domestic growth in advanced economies
• Europe needs to innovate and invest to respond to these challenges
• We face a global environment that is marked by uncertainty

• Europe needs a new policy mix
• ECB will reach goal faster if other policies help it
• One key element is euro area fiscal policy
• Monetary policy will continue to support the economy
• We will continuously monitor the side effects of our policies
• Accommodative stance has been a key driver of domestic demand
• That stance remains in place

Monetary policy will continue to support the economy, she says, which means that the ECB will continue to pump up cash into the monetary system. But, the monetary policy can only get us so far, the global economy will have to improve and some fiscal spending is badly needed, but can you convince the Germans about it?