•  The Central Bank’s projection is for a slowing of real GDP growth to 3.5 per cent in 2008, down from 5.5 per cent in 2007. Most of the slowdown is coming from the energy sector.
This applied both when the Eurosystem operational framework was being designed and in its subsequent adjustment to changing market circumstances. In fact, our pre EMU experience in the active management of the local markets has proven to be very beneficial in this regard.