In its Monthly Bulletin of November 2002, the European Central Bank (ECB) stated that the monthly press conference held by its President represents one of its most important communication channels and that it provides a comprehensive summary of the policy-relevant assessment of economic developments. After providing a glossary to translate the qualitative information of the press conferences into an ordered scale, we verify empirically whether and to what extent market expectations react to the information released by the ECB. We found that the public not only understand but also believe the signals sent by the European monetary authority.