What is your view of these austerity policies in the larger strategy right now, forcing austerity at all costs in order to bring the budget deficits down? Draghi: This is actually a general question about Europe. Is there an alternative to fiscal consolidation? In our institutional set up the levels of debt-to-GDP ratios were excessive.
The latest observations are for the second quarter of 2022. Such a scenario could have particularly negative implications for the euro area. Our economy is not only more vulnerable than others to the energy crisis, it is also more open than economies such as the United States, China and Japan, and thus more exposed to a global recession.