The euro area is struggling to pull out of recession: demand is dampened by the immediate effects of public and private deleveraging in many countries; cyclical weakness is spreading to the economies not directly exposed to the sovereign debt crisis. Recovery in the euro area requires help from every sphere of economic policy.
Thirdly, like most of you I have spent the majority of my time during the past four years seeking ways to overcome the global financial crisis and to establish a new system of financial regulation to prevent future crises. And so let me tell you now of one personal episode related to economic crisis management.