At the same time, recent developments appear to have led to a reduction in some of the uncertainties surrounding the evolution of the world economy in 1999. This mainly relates to the strong  1  BIS Review 25/1999  performance of the US economy, but may also be due to signs of improvement in the real economies of some Asian countries.
Nevertheless, in the view of the Governing Council, it is too early for a truly favourable assessment of the external environment for the euro area. Risks pertaining to external imbalances, continuing risk aversion and the corresponding weakness of private long-term capital flows and real investment to emerging market economies will need to be examined closely.