Here is a guide to phrases they were listening for as Mr. Draghi spoke on Thursday:<br />The European Central Bank repeated its promise to keep buying government<br />and corporate bonds — a form of economic stimulus — until the end of the year, “or beyond, if necessary.”<br />Observers of the central bank are obsessing about when in 2018 the bank might begin to wind down, or taper, those bond purchases.<br />Mr. Draghi described the eurozone economy as “increasingly solid” and said “downside risks have further diminished.”<br />But the change in tone was not so significant that it caused most analysts to recalibrate their forecasts of when tapering might begin.<br />While also declining to comment on American politics, Mr. Draghi said he was less worried<br />that the Trump administration would take measures that would interfere with world trade.<br />The upshot on Thursday was that the central bank’s Governing Council has become more optimistic about the eurozone economy, moving<br />ever so cautiously toward the day when it will begin withdrawing its stimulus measures and, eventually, raise interest rates.<br />But for analysts and investors — who parse every word spoken by Mario Draghi, the president of<br />the bank, alert to even subtle changes in language or tone — there was plenty to focus on.<br />At its previous meeting, the bank said that an increase in the official eurozone inflation rate, to 2 percent,<br />was the result of higher oil prices rather than being an indicator that the economy was heating up.
