The popular caricature presents the European Central Bank as obsessed with price stability and neglectful of economic growth. This misses the point. The ECB believes that credibility in ­fighting inflation is a central bank's principal contribution to growth through ensuring low interest rates across the yield curve. Look to the bond market to measure the ECB's success, not to the policy rate which commentators focus on.

The behaviour of global bond markets in the past 12 months spectacularly vindicates the ECB's approach. Since the US Federal Reserve started tightening at the end of June last year, 10-year bond yields in the eurozone have fallen by 1 percentage point to 3.4 per cent. This decline is particularly impressive because it has occurred despite strong global growth and a 60 per cent increase in the oil price.